The energy policy initiatives announced by the Luxon Government today are a desperate attempt to revive fossil fuels, which have spectacularly failed to provide New Zealand with cheap or reliable energy, and which are destroying the climate.<\/p>\n\n
The Luxon Government today announced its long awaited energy initiatives, which included Government subsidies for a fossil gas (LNG) import facility, subsidies for new fossil fuel generation, and re-announced subsidies for fossil fuel exploration.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cWhile China and much of the world embraces low cost solar and wind energy, Luxon and Trump are doubling down on government subsidised \u2018drill baby drill\u2019 policies to support fossil fuel companies,\u201d says Dr Russel Norman, Greenpeace Aotearoa Executive Director.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cNew Zealanders will pay the price for Luxon\u2019s Trumpian energy policy with higher electricity bills, less energy security, higher taxes, and more climate pollution.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cWe have the opportunity to embrace cheaper renewable generation with low carbon emissions. Generating our own energy from renewables is not only good for the climate, it is also necessary to save our economy from a wave of deindustrialisation driven by high priced fossil fuel energy. <\/p>\n\n
\u201cFossil fuel dependence is expensive, with the gas industry\u2019s own study finding LNG-fuelled electricity costs more than renewables, and it locks us into endlessly paying for more imported fossil fuels with volatile prices. And of course it would take years if it was ever built<\/p>\n\n
\u201cThe Luxon Government has systematically undermined New Zealand\u2019s transition away from unreliable, expensive fossil gas. It abandoned the NZ Battery Project designed to provide long term storage and security to our energy system. It closed the Government Investment in Decarbonisation Industry fund which was helping industry cut its fossil gas use. It stopped work on the Gas Transition Plan which was specifically designed to move on from fossil gas. And it blocked huge offshore wind generation by fast tracking seabed mining. <\/p>\n\n
\u201cThe decision to give $200m in government subsidies for more gas exploration, while weakening the laws regulating end-of-life decommissioning costs for oil fields, are subsidies to oil and gas companies. These subsidies will cost New Zealanders dearly.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cLuxon\u2019s War on Nature is not only terrible for the planet, it is expensive. Greenpeace will continue to defend nature – bring on the sun!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The latest energy policy initiatives announced by the Luxon Government are a desperate attempt to revive fossil fuels.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":61968,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","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":[16,26],"p4-page-type":[7],"class_list":["post-74112","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-greenpeace","tag-climate","tag-oil-and-gas","p4-page-type-press-release"],"yoast_head":"\n