The 'Electric Election': energy policies, side by side
Labour and the Greens call it a tax. The coalition Government calls it a levy. We call it a forced investment into an old technology that's not needed.Rewiring Aotearoa CEO and Electric Orchardist Mike Casey explained the absurd decision to build a new Liquified Natural Gas terminal on Breakfast and it boils down to this: it is set to be an investment "north of a billion dollars" that locks us into another volatile foreign molecule subscription. All electricity users will be forced pay a fee to fund it (but not gas users). And "if we're lucky", households will see a decrease of $50 a year.
'Downward pressure,' a phrase the Government and the energy industry likes to use to show it's doing something, does not guarantee bills will go down, as we have seen over time. Gas often sets the price of electricity and LNG is a more expensive variety of gas, so, as Marc Daalder writes in Newsroom, it's how it gets used that counts.
Rooftop solar, on the other hand, offers households thousands of dollars of savings each year, including loan repayments. Combine more of that on homes, farms and businesses with lots more grid-scale solar, wind and geothermal to keep water in the hydro lakes, better use of our existing domestic gas reserves for businesses that really need it, and, if we're desperate, coal and diesel (which is hopefully not needed if we build enough), and we have a much better solution to our dry year issue.
'Twas the night before Chris-mas, and all through the house, all the voters were stirring, the pundits showing their nous … the election will soon be over, but the energy crisis won't, so we'll be there to pester whoever is in power about the need to run more of the economy on New Zealand-made energy; can Ethiopia's aggressive push for EVs work and how does New Zealand compare in terms of adoption rates?; a two-way charging trial from Genesis shows promise in Auckland, but there's still a way to go before it's mainstream; small electric vehicles are often overlooked when it comes to electrifying transport, but it's hard to miss this weird French one; a solar-powered cafe (and some electric coffee); and we endorse the political vandalism of Keith of All Trades.
Read moreDownloadPoliticians are being urged to adopt stronger electric vehicle incentives ahead of the election. Climate and energy advocacy group Rewiring Aotearoa is arguing that EVs are one of the most effective long-term solutions for rising transport and energy costs. They're promoting an EV Salary Boost proposal, which would allow workers to access EVs through pre-tax salary arrangements – similarly to already existing schemes in the UK and Australia. Policy and Government Relations Spokesperson Ngaio Neumegen told Kerre Woodham that even with the rising cost of power, it's still cheaper to run an EV than a car running on imported fuel.
A proposal that would let New Zealanders lease an electric car using their before-tax pay has not won a commitment from either National or Labour, with the 7 November election days away. Under the EV Salary Boost, put forward by Rewiring Aotearoa and Drive Electric, an employee would lease a new or used EV for three to five years. The payments would come out of their pay before tax, lowering the cost of running the car. The idea is based on Australia’s novated leasing system, though the groups say they are not proposing a direct copy.
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