Greens flay Govt over gas project

As the deadline looms for a massive gas-fired power plant to be deemed a project of national significance, the Greens are accusing the Government of abandoning its responsibilities on climate change.

The Government has until tomorrow to ‘‘call in’’ a proposed 360-megawatt gas-fired power plant in Waikato, so that it can be subject to national consultation.

The proposal is currently being considered for resource consent at a local government level.

But while Greens energy and resources spokesman Gareth Hughes said its effects on climate change should be considered under the Resource Management Act (RMA), Environment Minister Nick Smith has fired back calling their position ‘‘mischievous’’.

Nova Energy lodged a land use consent application in September to build the station about 10 kilometres north of Otorohanga.

The site has been proposed as a peak site - to generate power in times where there was insufficient wind or hydro power being generated to keep up with demand.

‘‘This is a substantial project; 360 megawatts, that could release 425,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions,’’ Hughes said.

Those emissions were primarily in the form of carbon dioxide.

‘‘So it’s ridiculous that the Resource Management Act can’t consider climate change.

‘‘This is the only opportunity that we can even think about the greenhouse gas emissions and I’d be urging Nick Smith to reconsider his position, because it’s out of touch with reality in 2016,’’ Hughes said.

Smith said carbon dioxide emissions were specifically excluded for consideration under the RMA, ‘‘ironically by the Clark Government, with the support of the Greens’’.

‘‘Now that provision was tested by Greenpeace all the way to the Supreme Court, and the court upheld the view that carbon dioxide emissions was not a relevant consideration.

‘‘To be fair to the Clark Government, the justification for removing CO2 out of the RMA was that it’s dealt with in the Climate Change Act.

‘‘There’s no justification for calling in this Nova Energy power station, because the impacts of the building, the impacts on water, the impacts on non CO2 air pollution are small and would not meet any of the legal tests.

‘‘The Greens know that,’’ Smith said.

The Government has made ‘‘good progress’’ in reducing emissions from the electricity sector.

‘‘When we became the Government 65 per cent of electricity was renewable, that figure in the latest year is 81 per cent. We are on target to meet 90 per cent by 2025.

‘‘The Government’s view of the best way to discourage greenhouse gas emissions, is the Emissions Trading Scheme that imposes a cost of $19 currently, per tonne.’’

Smith said that given coalgenerated power emitted three times as much carbon dioxide as a modern gas turbine, there would actually be a climate change benefit in using this new power station over the Huntly station.

Hughes said the life of the Huntly station had been extended until the 2020s, so all that would happen would be that New Zealand’s responsibilities under the Paris Climate Change Agreement would be harder to meet.

An Official Information request, by the Greens to the offices of Smith, Climate Change Minister Paula Bennett and Energy and Resources Minister Simon Bridges, showed there had been no attempt by any minister to seek any formal advice on the power plant.

The Greens say it’s evidence that the Government did not know about the proposal.

‘‘I think it highlights how National isn’t taking climate change seriously, with actual practical policies to reduce emissions, rather than just signing treaties overseas,’’ Hughes said.

Smith said he was ‘‘perfectly aware’’ Nova Energy had proposed a plant back in August. ‘‘. . . it is not the Government’s policy for ministers to be deciding which individual power stations may or may not be built.’’ - Fairfax NZ