Anyone wanting to make a submission but doesnt have the words, feel free to copy paste from here
I oppose the intent of this bill
because:
Energy security is crucial for our nation and the selloff
of energy assets may sabotage the future of New Zealand. According to the
International Energy Agency, the world hit peak oil in 2006 and we are now on
the downhill side of the curve with potentially as little as 15 years left
before we are sucking the bottom of the barrel.
Evidence of this is all around us if we consider the rise
in fuel costs, increased conflict over fuel resources and increased effort to
utilise more expensive and hard to get non-conventional
hydrocarbons.
If left unchecked, we will see living standards
undergoing a dramatic decline. All discussions of an economic nature are moot
without energy, for without energy there is no economy.
As fossil fuel resources deplete, economies will
contract, thus productivity and profitability will go down.
Keeping this in mind, consider our reliance on these
resources. According to the NZ Energy Data File 2011, about 62 per cent of New
Zealand's energy comes from fossil fuels while the remaining 38 per cent comes
from renewable resources. Renewable resources in which there has been hardly any
investment in for over 30 years! Instead of resting on what our forebears left
us and hoping for the best, we should be growing renewable generation capacity
dramatically.
It takes energy to make the infrastructure to harness
energy and presently we are squandering that opportunity. It will take at least
15 years to build the infrastructure required and the longer we wait, the more
it will cost and the less likely it will ever happen.
Our existing energy generation infrastructure offers a
good basis to build on. As oil prices rise, more of our energy needs will be met
by electricity and therefore our electrical generation infrastructure will
become more important, more valuable and more profitable.
For example, to put 1.5 million electric cars on the
roads it would require three times current generation capacity, but we will also
require much more electricity to keep our economy running. So, in the future,
electrical generation capacity will become ever more important and must be
increased vastly to meet future needs.
We should use profits from electrical generation to
augment renewable capacity to kick dependence on fossil fuels. If we start
investing now, we would also keep money in New Zealand by not needing to import
as much oil.
Rather, we would be meeting our needs with free, local,
renewable resources. Indeed, we must build the infrastructure to capture the
energy but the running costs are low.
Why risk letting the backbone of our economy fall into
foreign hands to enrich someone else or if not foreign hands, why let it become
an enterprise focussed on profit for shareholders...profit that would come from
skimping on investment and raising prices? Our electrical generation profits
will be growing immensely as we transition from oil as our reliance on
electricity will go from 38 per cent to 90 per cent of total energy or perhaps
even more. Why let go of 49% of the income stream that will be growing as
electricity becomes more important? Why allow these companies to be transformed
into enterprises that solely focus on returning a profit for investors? The
energy infrastructure of this nation has had little substantial investment in
the past 30 years and without investment, we could be placing our economy in a
precarious position as things may start to fail and we will also have a
shortfall as demand increases. Without complete ownership, we cannot ensure
re-investment will take place to augment generation capacity and we risk having
a serious shortfall.
This is a matter too crucial for market forces because
they may dictate to squeeze all the profit out rather than investing. We need
cooperation, lest we lose everything due to blind faith in economic ideologies.
We need to look after New Zealand by keeping jobs and money here; by investing
in renewable energy while creating jobs and export potentials.
We should look at the long term consequences versus the
short term inconvenience and get on with it. Selling these electrical assets is
purely a short term band-aid at a time when we need surgery. Selling these
assets will increase energy poverty in NZ as well as see more of our money go
overseas and neither of these things is good for the people of this country.
Selling these assets will hurt NZ in the short and long term and it needs to be
stopped.
I recommend that we follow a path similar to what the
Greens mapped out in the last election. They were absolutely correct when they
stated that we can drive economic growth on the back of our energy sector and it
can benefit all of us. There is not much profit in dairy products and as
shipping gets more expensive, business for far flung NZ will start to dwindle.
High tech energy solutions however have high value and therefore are worth
shipping even as rates increase. High tech solutions also harness the brain
power and help us keep people in NZ, ending the brain drain and we can bring
more money into the country as well, rather than watching it flow
offshore.
We are at a crossroads here where we either choose to
invest in the future of NZ OR we put the for sale sign up and fully become
renters in our own land. The sale of assets would be one more nail in the coffin
for this nation.
