It looks like the Government’s plans to open up New Zealand’s deep and clean oceans to dangerous deepwater drilling could be in deep trouble.

Today’s Herald reports that plunging global oil prices have forced explorers to scale back plans in New Zealand. This is not breaking news as such, as the price of oil has been collapsing over the last six months, but we are now starting to see what this actually means for the oil industry. And it’s bad news for them and the Government.

With oil now below $50 a barrel, plans for drilling in risky areas like the Arctic and off our coastlines are looking shakier than the Wellington fault line. The thing is, not only is deepwater drilling dangerous, it’s also very, very expensive. And oil giants looking to drill in New Zealand, like Anadarko and Statoi...

This morning Greenpeace activists barricaded shut Statoil’s new Wellington office before the Norwegian oil giant has fully opened for business.

And the reason: to send a very clear message to Norway that New Zealanders don’t want Statoil here drilling for deep sea oil, putting our environment and economy at risk.

Activists blocked the entry by adding extra locks to the front door and boarding it up with planks and a sign reading ‘Go Home Statoil’. The sign, featuring Maori motifs, was designed by members of Northland iwi that are opposed to deep sea oil exploration off their coast.

Today’s action comes a day after Energy and Resources minister Simon Bridges opened up vast new areas of our ocean (including maui’s dolphin habitat) and forest parks to oil drilling. Statoil has picked up... Read more >

“There be trouble in town sheriff, some cowboys is coming into town”. It could be a line from a grainy old western from our childhood (well, mine anyway) when the good, clean living people of a well to do town see trouble on a dusty horizon. It’s when the street talk stops, shutters shut and bar stools and laws get broken.

Well it seems the cowboys are right here in little ol’ New Zealand.

Yesterday it was revealed that the country’s largest oil company, Shell Todd Energy, has been drilling illegally off the west coast. In official documents released to the Green party, the Environmental Protection Agency has slammed Shell for failing to get permission to drill two wells in their oil and gas fields. It described the oil giant as having a “low range of a negative attitude”, which to you ... Read more >

Some of the most exciting and rapid changes in the way we shift to doing things in a cleaner, smarter way are happening in one of the most personal aspects of our lives: the car.

Many Kiwi’s love their wheels and anyone who loves fast cars will love the latest new electric cars. You will have heard of the Tesla. If you haven’t, then where have you been? The Tesla is the car that has turned the way we look at electric cars on its head. As Elon Musk, the brains behind the Tesla said of his latest creation: “this car will crush a Porsche on the track, just crush it. And by the way, it happens to be electric”.

As electric cars revolutionise the way we get from A to B, the visionaries at Evolocity New Zealand want to make sure that New Zealand gets a piece of the action. EVolocity are not only... Read more >

At the weekend, large parts of the country’s biggest city and financial capital were thrown in to darkness following a power cut. It took the best part of three days to restore power to our homes and businesses and cost the regional economy tens of millions.

The outage was so significant that the government has launched an investigation with energy and resources Minister Simon Bridges declaring that it is necessary to give “the public confidence that risks to power supply are being adequately managed” and may result in policy changes.

And this begs some serious questions about how we can improve our current, old energy system.

This is not the first time this year that the northern part of the country has been affected by power cuts. Back in June, powerful storms from an extreme weather e... Read more >