€    Auckland kept out of Vector, NGC deal
The New Zealand Herald 05/08/2004. One of the merger proposals for publicly owned power giant Vector would ring-fence the company’s Auckland assets and combine the rest with listed company NGC. The Business Herald was told merger discussions were live, detailed and promising. Finance industry sources say the advisers are ABN Amro (Vector) and Goldman Sachs JBWere (NGC). Vector and NGC managers are  expected to decide soon - possibly within two to three weeks - on whether a deal is warranted. More...
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/businessstorydisplay.cfm?storyID=3582272&thesection=business&thesubsection=energy&thesecondsubsection=electricity&thetickercode=NGC

RURAL

€    Care with pesticides key to export success
The New Zealand Herald 09/08/2004. Fruit and vegetable growers will have to find ways to produce crops free of pesticide residues if they want to compete successfully in affluent export markets, says a keynote speaker at a Hamilton workshop today. John Mangan, of Freshco, an Auckland-based produce exporter, said the issue of chemicals in food was critical to export markets. More…
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/latestnewsstory.cfm?storyID=3582906&thesection=business&thesubsection=latest

MARINE FARMING

€    Seaweed harvest rules under fire
The Dominion Post 06/08/2003. Fisheries Ministry proposals to restrict commercial harvesting of undaria make no sense,  says the man who holds the only commercial licence for the invasive seaweed. “It’s the most bureaucratically cumbersome harvesting regime that’s ever been dreamed up. It’s totally unnecessary,” said Roger Beattie, who farms the seaweed at Mahanga Bay in Wellington Harbour. More…
http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,2993780a11,00.html

RMA REVIEW

€    Government warned off RMA refocus, fast tracking RMA projects
Scoop.co.nz 05/08/2004. Moves by the government to improve implementation of the Resource Management Act and to provide information to people participating in Resource Management Act processes are welcome and are all that is needed, says the Environment and Conservation Organisations of NZ, ECO, in Wellington today. Cath Wallace, spokesperson for ECO, says the Government should not alter the RMA to insert objectives for infrastructure projects or other commercial or government projects. More...
http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/PO0408/S00056.htm

ALTERNATIVE ENERGY

€    Speed of establishing wind farms increases viability says EECA
Scoop.co.nz 06/08/2004. The speed with which Meridian energy’s Te Apiti Wind farm is being built shows wind energy is a quick solution for energy generation, says Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority Chief Executive, Heather Staley. “Myths surrounding the viability of wind as a renewable energy source, suggest that one of the problems with building wind farms is the length of time this takes. Te Apiti is now generating energy and it’s less than a year since the process got underway. More…
http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/SC0408/S00020.htm

€    Displace high CO2 fuels with LPG
Scoop.co.nz 03/08/200. New Zealand could help control its escalating greenhouse gas problem by displacing high CO2 fuels with cleaner-burning LPG. The LPG Association said today that New Zealand could begin immediately to cut CO2 emissions if Government helped to encourage more use of LPG in the industrial and light commercial sectors. More... http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/BU0408/S00048.htm

PLANNING ISSUES

€    Cultural issues threaten future of Tauranga satellite city
NZPA 04/08/2004. Development of a big satellite city near Tauranga providing homes for 25,000 people is threatened by Maori cultural issues. Highly sensitive issues with stormwater, water supplies and sacred sites must be sorted out before Tauranga City Council can start developing its “live, work and play” concept satellite city, which is to be built in two stages in Papamoa East. Maketu’s Ngati Whakaue hapu has opposed the council’s preference to drain the eastern side of the planned new city into the Kaituna River. More…
http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,2992541a11,00.html

CONSERVATION

€    ORNZ chairman accuses DOC of ‘despotic behaviour’
Scoop.co.nz 04/08/2004. Outdoor Recreation NZ Chairman Paul Check today slammed the Department of Conservation for ‘time and time again demonstrating behaviour worthy of a Third World dictatorship’. “In an amazing interpretation of the public submissions received on the proposed Great Barrier Island Marine Reserve, DOC has interpreted a resounding 73% of submissions against the proposal as a public mandate to proceed,” he said. More… http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/PO0408/S00049.htm

€   Forest and Bird’s sale of benefactor’s land gift criticised
NZPA  04/08/2004. The country’s biggest conservation group has sold land with ancient pohutukawa that an elderly  benefactor wanted protected after her death. Forest and Bird has pocketed $670,000 for the sale of a 1000sq m block of the 3500sq m Piha section bequeathed by Ella Hilford. Mrs Hilford died in 1998, leaving her estate to Forest and Bird because she and husband Wilfred had no children. More…http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,2991665a7693,00.html

€    Transit tunnels to protect bush
The New Zealand Herald 09/08/2004. Transit will add tunnels  and a second “eco-viaduct” to its $300 million tolled motorway to Puhoi, but critics want it to do more. It has confirmed plans to dig twin 240m tunnels rather than carve 60m out of bushclad Johnsons Hill, on the distinctive ridge between Waiwera and Puhoi, and to simplify an intersection with the existing highway north. More…
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?storyID=3583000&thesection=news&thesubsection=general  

RECYCLING

€    Ministry wakes up to e-waste
The Dominion Post 09/08/2004. The Environment Ministry  plans to launch a voluntary “e-waste” recycling scheme next  year which will try to prevent computer monitors and  televisions ending up in landfills. Legislation which may oblige computer companies and other manufacturers to take  back and dispose of products that are at the end of their life  could be 18 months to two years away. More… http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,2996169a7693,00.html

€    Tyres shredders on the right track
Scoop.co.nz 04/08/2004. Tyres shredded at Waitakere are  ending up as surfaces for horse arenas, land erosion control, sports turf management, children’s playgrounds, sound proofing and thermal barriers. When Glendene company J & J Laughton started recycling tyres seven years ago there was  virtually no market for recycled tyre products; it had to create its own markets, using US and UK models. The practice of using shredded rubber mixed with layers of sand on a solid, well-drained base, for horse arenas has become very popular with horse trainers, says J & J Laughton’s administration manager Christine Waters. More…
http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/AK0408/S00024.htm

CLIMATE CHANGE

€    Under the weather - from one extreme to the other
The Sunday Star-Times 08/08/2004. An ominous new 75-year weather forecast says New Zealand is in for dramatic extremes of flood and drought. The Environment Ministry report charting possible climate changes across the country predicts New Zealand will be a warmer, stormier place by the 2080s. More… http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,2996083a11,00.html

€    Waitakere gears up for climate-friendly programme
Scoop.co.nz 03/08/2004. Waitakere Council is gearing up to reduce the effects of climate change through a new greenhouse gas reduction programme funded by the Environment Ministry’s Climate Change office. Waitakere is one of the first four councils in New Zealand to join Communities for Climate Protection (CCP-NZ), an internationally recognised programme that empowers 500 councils throughout the world to cut greenhouse gas emissions in their own activities and in their communities.  More… http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/AK0408/S00010.htm

€    Wood pellet initiative rewarded with emission units
Scoop.co.nz 03/08/2004. Hastings wood pellet manufacturing company, Fire-Logs (NZ) Limited has been awarded up to 19,818 emission units, under the government’s Projects to Reduce Emissions programme. “This scheme and others like it, make a very real contribution towards tackling climate change. From when production starts in 2005 to the end of the first Kyoto commitment period in 2012, it has the potential to displace 26,309 tonnes of carbon dioxide,” says Convenor of the Ministerial Group on Climate Change, Pete Hodgson. More… http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/PA0408/S00045.htm

WATER

€    Ecan stands by illegal water take prosecution
The Timaru Herald 04/08/2004. Environment Canterbury is standing by its decision to prosecute a Willowbridge farmer for an illegal water take from the Waihao River. Last week, 65-year-old Murray Bruce was fined $6000 and ordered to pay $1383 in costs after being found guilty on the charge. 90% of the fine is to go to Environment Canterbury, which was also awarded $1044.06 towards its investigation costs. More… http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,2991299a3600,00.html

€    Supertunnel proposed for Auckland’s water woes
NZPA 02/08/2004. Auckland’s bursting stormwater and sewerage pipes may be relieved by a huge new five-metre high, 15km long supertunnel deep under the city. Watercare Services Ltd, which looks after the city’s water and waste water network, is in the early stages of studying a five-metre diameter supertunnel to cope with the massive rush of stormwater which hits the systems every time the city has a big downpour. More… http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,2990241a11,00.html

GAS EXPLORATION

€    Gas search planned off Wairarapa coast
The Manawatu Standard 04/08/2004. American and Australian oil interests intend to look for natural gas off the Wairarapa coast out from Akitio. Denver-based Energy Corporation of America and Perth’s Tap Oil have applied for resource consents from Horizons Regional Council for speculative drilling just inside New Zealand’s 22km economic zone. More… http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,2992580a13,00.html

WASTE MANAGEMENT

€    Plan to cut Christchurch’s 280,000 tonnes of rubbish
The Press 09/08/2004.  A ground-breaking plan to reduce the 280,000 tonnes of rubbish piling up in Christchurch’s landfills every year will be unveiled to Christchurch councillors tomorrow. The plan involves turning Christchurch’s three transfer stations into waste-sorting facilities where recyclable materials dumped by householders and commercial operations  can be taken out of the waste stream. Christchurch City Council general manager, city environment, Jane Parfitt said the plan would make a major contribution to the council’s goal of zero waste. More… http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,2996197a7693,00.html

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