Don't listen to Old Man Gas. Ditch LNG. Support New Zealand-made energy!
As Mike Casey told Mike Hosking on Newstalk ZB, while we might not be able to do much about the oil required to make the plastic pipes (and the coming price increases), we can do something to insulate ourselves against petrol and diesel price spikes.
"Have you bought Kate her EV yet?"
Around two thirds of the total energy New Zealand uses comes from fossil fuels, most of which are imported. And we've seen how risky that reliance is recently as prices went through the roof.
When you add households and their cars together as a sector, it is the biggest energy user in the country. That's why we're so focused on helping them upgrade to electric, because greater prosperity begins at home.
Our Machine Count report released last year showed there were ten million fossil fuel machines in the country. A very small number don't have electric options (yet). Some require a bit of effort to electrify. And around 8.5 million of them could be electrified economically today using current technology.
Many of those machines are vehicles and ensuring more of them run on cheaper New Zealand-made energy needs to be seen as an issue of national and economic security.
See how going electric can improve our energy security here.
Political Power has gone local! Dr Nick Smith, mayor of Nelson and ex-National Party minister, is an early adopter when it comes to electric machines but, through his efforts with the council and his close involvement with the Ratepayer Assistance Scheme, he's also embracing one of Rewiring's core mantras: once you've electrified your own life, electrify someone else's life, too.
Read moreDownloadWhether it's the growing number of electric buses, new electric trains for the lower North Island and City Rail Link, or new electric ferries, we love seeing more electric transport options in our big cities. It's also good to see some of our smaller cities like Palmerston North, Timaru and Nelson going electric and, as is almost always the case, the drivers reckon it's better on electrons. At the Electrify Nelson expo, we spoke with one driver Lee about the city's electric buses. And he definitely wouldn't go back to diesel.
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