Hodgson in hot water as Kiwis go without

It's taken days of questioning but finally Energy Minister Pete Hodgson is facing up to the scale of the electricity crisis he's responsible for, according to National Party Energy spokesman Gerry Brownlee.

Mr Brownlee is responding to Pete Hodgson's admission today that hot cylinders could be switched off for up to 18 hours a day and that rolling blackouts are a possibility.

"Back in November the Minister was still saying New Zealand 'should not be worried about running out of power' going so far as to suggest that he was 'satisfied that there is no cause for high anxiety.'

"How wrong he was," Mr Brownlee observes.

"When Kiwi householders awake to cold showers in the coming weeks, it's important the public realise Pete Hodgson could have taken steps to minimise the impact of the power crisis much sooner.

"The real point here is that the current electricity structure was quite accurately signalling likely power shortages last November," Mr Brownlee says.

"Instead Pete Hodgson was denying there was any problem and accusing the National Party of scaremongering when it raised the alarm.

"As recently as this week Mr Hodgson was still refusing to admit there was a crisis his sudden change of heart hints that things are much worse than we have so far predicted," Mr Brownlee says.

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