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RNZ's Kate Newton looks at the decision to build and LNG terminal and speaks with Rewiring CEO Mike Casey, who is pushing for a portfolio approach of more big renewables, more solar on homes, farms and businesses, better use of existing gas reserves and coal and diesel if we really need it.
Casey acknowledged the "mild" irony of a renewables advocate pushing for coal and diesel. "But we're in a situation, through an energy system that hasn't been serving New Zealanders for so long ... where unfortunately we do need some fossil fuels," he said. "The way we get out of it is not investing in more fossil fuels, it's using the fossil fuels that we currently use, and figuring out how to reduce that consumption as fast as we can."
Could reframing energy independence as a national security issue, rather than a climate one, be our best chance to go electric? The Spinoff collects a range of views from various commentators like Liam Dann, Pattrick Smellie and Joel McManus and shows that it has clearly got the attention of the media and should be getting the attention of our politicians.
Read moreDownload"There is quite a lot of talk about EV price depreciation and resale value, but we are not really talking about petrol car price depreciation. In the next five years or so, we may start to see a big game of petrol car hot potato, first between New Zealanders, and then between other countries." That was Mike Casey writing in Newsroom in January last year but, after the current crisis, it might happen more quickly than expected.
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