Briefly in Aotearoa’s political economy on Tuesday, February 10:
The Lead: The Government announced last night it planned to levy each household $15-30 per year to pay for a $1 billion-plus LNG import terminal and reduce the risk of massive price spikes during a dry year, saying this would reduce future wholesale prices by up to five times as much, which it expected gentailers to pass on to consumers. Paying subscribers can see more detail below the paywall fold and hear more analysis in the podcast above.
The Sidebar: However, the Government chose not to compare this LNG import option against investing the same amount in solar panels and batteries to allow the hydro lakes to be used as storage, choosing instead to only compare LNG against new coal and diesel ‘peaker’ plants. It’s also choosing to pay for the LNG terminal through a type of hire-purchase ‘lease’ agreement that increases the $1 billion up-front cost to $2.7 billion over the 15-year life of the facility, even though it may never be used if there is no dry year.
Question for the minister: Why not choose to spend that $2.7 billion on grid-scale and residential solar panel and battery installations that would now create four Lake Benmores’ worth of storage and generation, which would be enough to power over 2.5 million homes?
Chart of the Day: Climate scientist James Hansen has predicted record high temperatures in 2026 and 2027 because of another El Niño, which he says indicates climate warming of two degrees celsius by the mid 2030s, a decade earlier than expected.
Scoop of the Day: Andrea Vance reports this morning for The Post-$ that the Public Service is paying out millions each year in settlements of bullying, harassment and discrimination complaints that allow agencies to keep the cases secret.
Today’s Deep-dive of the Day is from Amanda Gillies for RNZ/Newsroom’s The Detail on how Government policies scuppered a surge in imports of electric vehicles.
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