Top public sector trouble-shooter Dame Margaret Bazley will replace the regional councillors at Environment Canterbury, with a mandate to address urgent water management problems in the region. Bazley will be given additional powers under special legislation, to be passed under urgency in Parliament this week. A further four to six commissioners will be appointed […]
The extraordinarily disappointing results of the 2009 report under the Clean Streams Accord are a wake-up call Fonterra heard, but which provoked from the national farming lobby, Federated Farmers, its routine stance of defensive victim-hood. Granted, the deterioration in water quality from dairy farms was not universal - Taranaki remains a shining star with 96% […]
The Electricity Authority Establishment Board, which will set up the Electricity Authority replacing the Electricity Commission, is to be chaired by Dr Brent Layton. Other board members are Simon Botherway, Miriam Dean, Roger Sowry, Peter Harris and David Caygill. The appointments will run to September 30. Dr Layton is also chairman of the Electricity Technical […]
Resources Minister Gerry Brownlee finally got his Review of Schedule 4 conservation lands report out into the open this week after weeks of Cabinet indecision about the politics of the proposals, which were beginning to fester because of the delay. The review estimates NZ’s mineral wealth, excluding hydrocarbons, at $194bn, and proposes removing just over […]
A shake-up in petrol station ownership in NZ may reverse the dominance in the industry of international oil giants. Wellington based Infratil in conjunction with the NZ Superannuation Fund, is in negotiations to conclude a deal with Royal Dutch Shell to buy its NZ service stations and its 17.1% stake in NZ Refining, owners of […]
Environment Minister Nick Smith says the Ministry for the Environment needs to “lift its game” over developing resource management and water policies. The ministry has been criticised for being tardy in completing guidelines for local and regional councils. In the 19 years since the RMA was passed only 2 national policy statements have been gazetted, […]
TrustPower sees another 12 to 18 months of intense retail electricity market competition, created largely because Energy Minister Gerry Brownlee’s reforms are forcing SOEs to reshuffle their customer bases to cope with new generation load in the north and south islands. Real and virtual asset swaps will see Meridian seeking North Island customers while Genesis […]
GNS Science says seismic and satellite data points to the Reinga Basin, off the northwest coast of the North Island, being one of the most promising frontier basins in NZ waters. The 150,000 sq km Reinga Basin was opened up to bidding for petroleum exploration permits this year, and the release of GNS data is […]
Energy and Resources Minister Gerry Brownlee says the Maari offshore oilfield is proving a success story of the petroleum sector, having produced 6.5m barrels of oil in its first year. Brownlee was speaking at a function a year on to mark the commissioning of the Maari project, which is majority owned by Austrian-based oil producer […]
With all the noise recently about the economics of building new electricity generation capacity, the Govt’s National Infrastructure Plan is notable for saying the biggest immediate priority for energy infrastructure is Transpower’s grid investment plan. The absence of any serious concern about a shortage of electricity generation capacity boils down to the fact history shows […]
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