EV Salary Boost: it's a pay rise you can drive!
Now there's a story we'll be cutting out and putting on the fridge! As The Post reports, misgivings from Act and NZ First about the proposed LNG import terminal mean a contract won't be signed before the election.
To its credit, the Government has recognised that the risk is too high to sign it now without the enabling legislation. Hopefully it has also recognised that things have changed markedly since LNG was proposed as a solution to the dry year problem (and, if they're being honest, a solution to the shortage of domestic gas for industrial users).
The war in the Middle East has seen LNG prices spike, the renewables roll out is continuing at pace, and the closure of Methanex has meant there is now more gas available for electricity in the short-term, something energy minister Simeon Brown and others have said may provide some relief.
Over the weekend, we launched a campaign focused on ditching LNG and backing New Zealand-made energy, and there has been a lot of work done by many others to show that the LNG import terminal was expensive and unnecessary. To them we raise a toast.
We will take this short-term reprieve as a win - and we hope that sense will prevail and a contract will never be signed. But we could still lose if we don't have a plan to get our big businesses off gas.
LNG is clearly not a hill some of our politicians want to die on. And now that it is off the table, it's time to direct some of that resource to electrifying industry, as well as our homes, farms and businesses.
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Along with taxes, education and health, energy is proving to be a big talking point in the run up to the election .. which is now 33 days away. All the political parties have released some energy policies .. and while they're quite varied in their approaches .. the main focus seems to be bringing down the cost of electricity for us consumers. Our first guest would like electric transport to also be part of the conversation .. he's calling for a 'great EV comeback' and has some ideas about how to make it happen. Mike Casey, Rewiring Aotearoa Chief Executive joins Jesse.
The electric election continues apace! National announced its 'Electrify NZ 2.0 plan' last week and Mike Casey joined Andrew Dickens on Newstalk ZB to talk about the potential for peer-to-peer trading of energy, the roll of solar in lowering power prices, data centres needing to bring their own generation, and the likelihood that all this talk will turn into action.
