27 March 2009

Govt ignores Rodney power plant risks

Green Party Co-Leader Jeanette Fitzsimons has slammed the Government's incompetence in strategically planning the future of New Zealand's electricity supply as Genesis ploughs ahead with a power station that would result in much higher power prices.

Rodney District Council confirmed today that it has granted resource consents for Genesis Energy's proposed gas-fired power station at Kaukapakapa.

"The Government's ideological commitment to market-led energy supply - the cause of many of our electricity problems - is allowing its own company, Genesis, to build a crazy power station", said Jeanette Fitzsimons.

"Building a new gas power station at Rodney, without security of local gas supply, will mean New Zealand is dependent on imported gas at an international price that is linked to the rising price of oil.

"This would commit Kiwis to much higher electricity prices, and is completely unnecessary given our abundance of home-grown renewable energy options.

Genesis wrote to the Electricity Commission on 4 December 2008 that it does not have "access to a sufficient, secure forward quantity of gas" for the proposed power station, and it has admitted the power station is not viable in a "in a real-world, commercial sense".

Jeanette Fitzsimons challenged the Minister of State Owned Enterprises in Parliament this Tuesday with the revelation that Genesis has already spent $74 million of consumers' money pursuing the Rodney power station, even before it had its consents.

"It is also downright internationally embarrassing that councils are unable to take into account the climate change emissions from proposed thermal power stations, and that a price on emissions through an ETS is still in doubt.

"My Resource Management (Climate Protection) Amendment Bill , currently at Second Reading, would ensure that climate change emissions are considered in a proposal like the Rodney plant.

Commissioners heard that the power station would emit up to 1.74 million tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere - 20% of New Zealand's emissions from electricity generation - but the Auckland Regional Council had been unable to "consider the effects of such emissions on climate change when deciding the discharge to air applications".

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