Greenpeace has called for an overhaul of the electricity industry after a complaint against a tax on solar was quashed in court.<\/p>\n
Solar energy company, Solarcity, had been awarded a full hearing to test whether an extra charge for solar users was in breach of electricity industry codes, but yesterday the High Court ruled that the challenge could not proceed as there was no jurisdiction for the Rulings Panel, an independent electricity appeals body, to hear it.<\/p>\n
The case came after Hawke\u2019s Bay lines company, Unison, introduced a solar tax last April. A Greenpeace petition about the tax has received almost 80,000 signatures. \u00a0 Greenpeace campaigner, Kate Simcock, says the High Court decision is disappointing as it essentially allows companies like Unison to continue penalising solar users.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fact that this ridiculous tax cannot be properly challenged shows that the electricity industry in New Zealand is not accountable to anyone. Electricity is a closely guarded commodity that\u2019s being run to serve private interests,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot only is this an industry that keeps prices high and on the rise, but it\u2019s also systematically stifling the growth of the clean technology like solar that we urgently need in the face of a climate catastrophe.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s morally repugnant that big electricity players are knowingly taking steps to slow the uptake of solar because they see it as a threat to their bottom line. It\u2019s time for the Government to overhaul this diseased industry.\u201d<\/p>\n
As the effects of climate change continue to worsen, New Zealand has seen a deluge of extreme weather events, including floods, cyclones and droughts, in the space of just a few months. \u00a0 Drought in the South Island has been so bad this year it\u2019s deprived the hydro dams of water. As a result, the dirtiest fossil fuel in the world \u2013 coal – has made a comeback.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been revealed that the New Zealand\u2019s last coal-fired power station in Huntly is now firing up at full capacity, with owner Genesis Energy even buying extra coal from Indonesia to power it.<\/p>\n
In April last year, Genesis announced it would be keeping Huntly\u2019s coal burners on for at least another four years, despite previously promising to turn them off by 2018. This followed closed-door discussions by several power companies, including Meridian Energy, to subvert the decision to shut the burners down.<\/p>\n
Simcock says New Zealand should never be in a position where it\u2019s burning dirty energy like coal in 2017.<\/p>\n
\u201cRenewables already make up more than half of the world\u2019s new power capacity and you\u2019d think \u2018clean, green\u2019 New Zealand should be at the forefront of that,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
\u201cInstead, over the past year we\u2019ve seen major electricity players conspire to keep dirty fuels burning with no regard for the climate crisis facing our communities or the consumers who are getting a bad deal.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is an electricity industry that has been allowed to run rogue for too long.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Greenpeace has called for an overhaul of the electricity industry after a complaint against a tax on solar was quashed in court.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2315,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_planet4_optimize_post_is_variant":false,"_planet4_optimize_experiment_name":"","_planet4_optimize_variant_name":"","ep_exclude_from_search":false,"p4_og_title":"","p4_og_description":"","p4_og_image":"","p4_og_image_id":"","p4_seo_canonical_url":"","p4_campaign_name":"","p4_local_project":"","p4_basket_name":"","p4_department":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[29],"p4-page-type":[7],"class_list":["post-1130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-greenpeace","tag-clean-energy","p4-page-type-press-release"],"yoast_head":"\n