Don't listen to Old Man Gas. Ditch LNG. Support New Zealand-made energy!
Electrify everything. Electrify everyone. Electrify New Zealand. That's Rewiring Aotearoa's vision and our CEO Mike Casey gave a condensed version of what we've done and what we're doing at our Electric Christmas party recently. As he said to a large crowd at Ecotricity, which kindly hosted the event and provided the excellent electric cake, 2024 was the year of the thinking, 2025 was the year of the doing, and 2026 will be the year of mass adoption.
This year, we counted all the country's fossil fuel machines (there are around 10 million of them and seven million are ready to electrify right now); we launched our policy manifesto and presented an achievable, affordable plan to create the world's most electric economy; we took the Kill Bills tour across the country and now have 36 community electrification groups; we've started an electrification accelerator in Queenstown that aims to become a demonstration project for the world to follow; and we have worked closely with a range of partners on the Ratepayer Assistance Scheme to ensure more New Zealanders get access to low-interest, long-term loans for electrification upgrades.
We're always fighting for the customers in the energy system (and they need more help than ever), but we're also fighting for New Zealand and we firmly believe that going electric is a massive win-win-win-win for the country. It could save us billions, slash our emissions, provide much greater resilience in emergencies and improve our energy security and we will continue to push for more ambition from our politicians as we head into next year's 'electric election'.
Thank you to all those who have chipped in to help us do this work. And thank you to all those who have electrified their own lives, attended one of our events, shared our posts, or used our information to try and educate others. It's been a real team effort.
If you'd like to donate, you can do so 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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