After two years of aggressive environmental deregulation, I’m almost past being able to be surprised by the Luxon Government’s regressive decisions, but this morning’s RNZ article struck a chord in me.
When a former oil refinery manager, someone who presumably knows the fossil fuel business inside out, makes more strategic sense on climate change than the New Zealand Government, we’ve hit a bizarre turning point.
In his interview with RNZ, David Keat noted that New Zealand has aligned itself with “MAGA US States” in its pursuit of fossil fuels and rejection of renewable energy sources. Our government is doubling down on an ideological obsession with oil and gas while the world is getting on with the energy transition.
The Government insists we are “on track” with climate goals, yet they are actively locking us into a future of volatile, imported fossil fuels. It’s a move straight out of the Trump playbook, and it’s a massive strategic failure for Aotearoa.
Keat’s perspective is grounded in common sense.
“If I was running New Zealand we should use this as the impetus to move us to energy self-sufficiency.”
Keat said that it had two components: 100 percent renewable electricity generation and electrifying the transport fleet.
“Most other countries in the world outside MAGA US states and New Zealand are doing that now, at pace. For some reason, New Zealand’s going down the 1980s’ path.”
It shouldn’t take war and violence to see that the writing is on the wall for fossil fuels, and that we should be sprinting toward clean energy like wind and solar. These are the tools that provide true independence from volatile global markets. Instead, the Luxon Government is like a tantruming child treating fossil fuels like a security blanket, when they are actually a lead weight on our future.
Make no mistake: through its backward policies, Luxon’s Government has actively made the current crisis worse for New Zealanders. He cut the clean car standard, making it harder for people to buy the fuel-efficient and electric vehicles that would have saved them money at the petrol pump today. He cut investment in cycling and public transport, which would have provided people with the option to leave the car at home when petrol prices are too high. And those are just two examples out of dozens of sensible climate policies that have been reversed, presumably to placate lobbyists, political donors and extremist coalition partners (you can read more about it here).
It’s wild to me that a former refinery boss can see the strategic need for the energy transition, while our leaders are trying to take us backwards. We don’t need more drilling, we need the renewable energy future that even the oil industry can see is inevitable.
Will this crisis finally force the Luxon Government to drop its ideological commitment to volatile and climate-wrecking fossil fuels? Or will the lure of political donations from industry (like the $100,000 that GMP Environmental Limited, a subsidiary of Greymouth Petroleum, gave to each of the three coalition parties in mid-February this year), continue to drive political decisions that should be made in the public interest?
Luxon has already done critical damage to his reputation as a statesman in response to the Iran crisis. Add to that a barrage of dubious and outright regressive policy decisions that are making this crisis worse for New Zealanders, and it makes you wonder what he’s doing in the top seat.
Will the opposition parties show they have a bold plan to take us to 100% renewable, and make commitments to real, tangible policies, like rolling out rooftop solar subsidies and building mass public transit? Or will they simply hope that Luxon continues to self-destruct and people vote him out, rather than voting something visionary in?
Let’s call on them to get on and do it.
We call on the Government to reject plans for an LNG facility, invest in renewables & embrace a Clean Energy Future for NZ
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