Green mayor, Oil Free Otago happy with decision
DUNEDIN Mayor Aaron Hawkins has welcomed news that the last oil and gas exploration permit in the South Island is likely to be surrendered.
New Zealand Oil and Gas says it doubts the Toroa permit in the Great South Basin will be developed under current regulatory settings.
The comments come in the same week that NZOG and partner Beach Energy applied to give up the Clipper permit in the Canterbury Basin.
‘‘The Dunedin City Council does not support deep sea oil and gas exploration or extraction,’’ Mr Hawkins said.
‘‘The news of any surrendered permits or expired permits is welcome.’’
The council was focused on transitioning the city’s economy to being netzero carbon by 2030, he said.
It was showing leadership in what the future economy looked like that supported the looming environmental challenge.
Mr Hawkins questioned the oil and gas industry’s claims about missed opportunities for the South.
‘‘I have always found the claimed economic benefit to the city of a project such as this to be overly optimistic,’’ he said.
‘‘Even if they were not, they pale into significance compared to the cost of not shifting away from the fossil fuel industry and investing in a zero carbon economy.’’
The council had an obligation towards those who lived here now but also to everyone who came after, he said.
The best thing it could do was invest in a safer climate.
‘‘Expanding deep sea oil and gas operation isn’t a part of that.’’
Oil Free Otago spokeswoman Rosemary Penwarden said the Great South Basin was one of the wildest oceans in the world.
‘‘The oil companies know this,’’ Ms Penwarden said. ‘‘Most of them have left. ‘‘Only New Zealand Oil and Gas are left now.’’
She understood the company would surrender its final permit in the South.
‘‘It is complete insanity to be exploring for oil or gas that we cannot afford to burn if we want to keep a liveable planet for our kids,’’ she said.
‘‘The science is pretty clear. ‘‘We are getting examples every day of climate change speeding up.’’
It was important to build the kind of future that people would be able to survive in and not waste any more millions of dollars digging holes in the wildest of oceans for oil and gas, she said.
Ms Penwarden disputed the industry’s claims that natural gas was a viable energy source in the transition to a fossilfree economy.
‘‘Every time you have a find, whether it is oil or gas, you are exposing methane to the atmosphere,’’ she said.
When burned, natural gas was a third less harmful than crude oil but the industry never counted the amount of gas leakage through the supply line, she said.
‘‘That leakage brings gas up to as bad as the burning of coal.’’
Methane pollution over a 20year term was towards 100 times worse than carbon dioxide, she said.
‘‘This is exactly the wrong time that we need to be sending unnecessarily more methane into the atmosphere.’’
Ms Penwarden was pleased the Climate Change Commission had recommended an end date for natural gas.
‘‘The commission seems to have seen through the spin that the oil and gas industry has been trying to teach us that gas is a transition fuel,’’ she said.
‘‘But of course the industry wants to keep going for as long as they can.’’
❛ It is complete insanity to be exploring for oil or gas that we cannot afford to burn if we want to keep a liveable planet for our kids
Oil Free Otago spokeswoman Rosemary Penwarden