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<< back NEW ZEALAND ENERGY & ENVIRONMENT DIGEST September 15, 2004 ENERGY INDUSTRY € Powerco’s new owner says here for the long-term The Dominion Post 08/09/2004. New Zealanders have nothing to fear from Australians taking over Powerco, the likely new owners say. Prime Infrastructure chief executive Chris Chapman, in New Plymouth yesterday on a public relations exercise, said it was only human nature for people to be emotive about the takeover – but there was nothing to worry about. “This is not a company that acquires assets and then pulls back. This is a company that invests in the future, because we are a long-term, stable, strong-yield company,” Mr Chapman said. More… http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3027387a13,00.html € Vector again faces privatisation issue NZPA 13/09/2004. Owners of Vector, the largest powerlines company in New Zealand, are again faced with the privatisation question - bring in private money to expand or stay in trust ownership. Australian power company AGL is selling its 66% stake in NGC, with Vector an obvious buyer. But Vector is 100% owned by the community’s Auckland Energy Consumer Trust, which last week announced its annual dividend payout - $170 each to the 286,000 homes and businesses in its area. More… http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3031872a13,00.html NUCLEAR ENERGY € Nuclear power surge in the east The New Zealand Herald 08/09/2004. China’s nuclear energy programme may spur a revival in an industry tarnished by accidents such as the Ukraine’s Chernobyl disaster in 1986, boosting demand for technology from companies such as Korea Electric Power. “There is a new era for nuclear energy,” said Francois Roussely, chairman of Electricite de France, which operates 58 reactors and is second only to the US in nuclear output. More… http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/businessstorydisplay.cfm?storyID=3589783&thesection=business&thesubsection=energy&thesecondsubsection=general&thetickercode= ALTERNATIVE ENERGY € Water, electricity and carbon ingredients for synthetic ‘powergas’ The New Zealand Herald 13/09/2004. An ability to make your own flammable gas is the sort of claim likely to prompt little more than a lame joke about baked beans or an invitation to pull someone’s leg. But after 10 years of hard slog and thousands of dollars of his own money, Auckland inventor Chris Newman is on the brink of taking his synthetic “powergas” project out of the shed and on to the world stage. His ideas could prove a godsend to isolated communities and those who need a clean, non-polluting energy source to power their lives - personally and professionally. Newman has patented a method of making synthetic gas - with water, electricity and carbon. More… http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/businessstorydisplay.cfm?storyID=3590890&thesection=business&thesubsection=energy&thesecondsubsection=general&thetickercode= OIL € Research needed to conserve oil reserves – expert The Dominion Post 08/09/2004. The world’s known resources of oil could be made to last until the middle of this century, even with the rocketing demand in developing countries. But it will depend on the willingness of developed countries to do some expensive research and development across the energy spectrum, according to ExxonMobil’s Buford Lewis. The willingness of developed countries to share technological advances with developing countries to help conserve reserves further will also be crucial, said Mr Lewis, ExxonMobil’s manager of fuels development and policy planning. More… http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3028197a7693,00.html OIL AND GAS EXPLORATION € Seafloor methane ice may hold big tsunami risk as well as energy NZPA 10/09/2004. Huge seafloor deposits of frozen natural gas being eyed by many countries as a potential energy source may also pose a severe risk of creating tidal waves triggered by underwater landslides, a New Zealand scientist says. Geophysicist Ingo Pecher will sail up the Hawke’s Bay coast next month in the research ship Tangaroa, trying to detect “gas hydrate” deposits in the seafloor sediments. These “frozen” layers of methane gas are widespread in sediments beneath shallow seafloor around continental margins – including some of New Zealand’s. More… http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3029436a7693,00.html KYOTO PROTOCOL € Russian experts oppose Kyoto protocol The Washington Times 09/09/2004. Russia’s official energy experts oppose ratifying the Kyoto Protocol on controlling greenhouse gas emissions, the Interfax news agency said Thursday. The Russian Industry and Energy Ministry has issued a new report to its government saying the forecasts of global greenhouse gas emissions in the protocol designed to prevent global warming are only estimates and tentative ones at that. “The submitted forecasts of greenhouse gases emissions (in the protocol) are guided by various criteria and only allow for tentative suggestions on when the level of greenhouse gases emissions may reach the 1990 level,” the ministry said in a new statement. More… http://washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/20040909-101617-6599r.htm GLOBAL WARMING € UK party leaders target climate The BBC 12/09/2004. In a rare show of unanimity the British prime minister and the leader of the opposition are both to insist on the urgency of tackling climate change. The Conservative leader Michael Howard will on 13 September spell out his way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The next day Tony Blair will offer a very different vision of how to fulfil the UK’s international commitments. More… http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3645772.stm € Extreme weather will kill millions - UK Reuters 08/09/2004. Millions of people across the globe are set to die early due to extreme weather events such as floods and heat waves caused by climate change, a British scientist said yesterday. Professor Mike Pilling cited the heatwave in Europe last year that killed thousands of people from a combination of heat exhaustion and an increase in atmospheric pollution. “We will experience an increase in extreme weather events,” he told reporters at the annual meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. “There are predictions of a 10-fold increase in heat waves. More … http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3028216a7693,00.html POLLUTION € Tonnes of trouble on Waikato farmland The Waikato Times 11/09/2004. Waikato authorities are planning to launch a massive effort to recover an estimated 164 tonnes of unwanted chemicals from farms. Half of the chemicals are persistent organic pollutants like DDT, PCP and 2,4,5-T and contain dioxin - the same substance causing concern in Taranaki. Ray McGregor, director of Hazardous Substances Management which is advising Environment Waikato, said his concern about dioxin was that it stayed in the food chain and could build up in a person’s fat tissues. He said many dangerous substances were stored in rural sheds in old containers. More… http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3031530a7693,00.html € Poison claims denied The Sunday Star-Times 12/09/2004. The men who made the poisons that blighted a New Plymouth community deny to this day they did anything wrong. “It’s been and gone, and now it’s all blown up out of proportion,” says Gerry Gerrard, who helped build the factory blamed for inflicting cancer, birth defects and a raft of other illnesses on local residents. “We took the utmost care,” said the former site manager of Ivon Watkins-Dow, the Paritutu chemical company that manufactured 2,4,5-T in the 1960s, 70s and 80s. More… http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3031687a11,00.html MINING INDUSTRY € Coromandel Watchdog straining at the leash The New Zealand Herald 13/09/2004. The environmentalists who stopped goldmining in the Coromandel Peninsula two decades ago are back to fight a new fight. Last night found-ing members from Coromandel Watchdog sat round the same planning table that saw them put together the country’s most successful anti-goldmining campaign. “We might be 20 years older but we’ve still got that fighting spirit in us,” said spokesman Mark Tugendhaft. “It appears that the mining industry needs to be sent another reminder that we don’t want them here.” More… http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?storyID=3590962&thesection=news&thesubsection=general GENETIC ENGINEERING € Test flaws risked GE contamination The Sunday Star-Times 12/09/2004. Two GE studies have been rapped by safety inspectors after holes in their security allowed genetically altered material access to the open. In one case the problem has created a large area of land which must be monitored by the Crop and Food Institute for rogue GE potatoes until 2007. One study was a potato field test by the Crop and Food Institute at Lincoln University and the other was on flowers at Otago University. More… http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3031702a7693,00.html BIOTECHNOLOGY € Biotech chief loses job The New Zealand Herald 11/09/2004. The downsizing of AgriGenesis, the plant science arm of Genesis Research, has cost the company its chief executive. Peter Lee said yesterday of his departure after less than a year in the job: “To put it one way, [I was] too expensive.” He said it was a joint decision he made with board members. New Zealand-born Lee returned from a 27-year corporate career in the United States to run AgriGenesis. More… http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/businessstorydisplay.cfm?storyID=3590661&thesection=business&thesubsection=general&thesecondsubsection=&thetickercode= ALTERNATIVE TECHNOLOGY € Electric 4WD wins $20K in business incubator competition Scoop.co.nz 09/09/2004. Plans for an electric all terrain vehicle with potential in the local and overseas markets got a $20,000 boost today after winning Up-Start, a business start-up competition. Landcrab is aimed at the growing local and international lifestyle block market. The developers say the 4WD electric vehicle will have comparative capabilities to conventional ‘ATV’ vehicles without the safety, pollution, usability and cost disadvantages of quad-bikes or ride-on mowers. More… http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/ED0409/S00032.htm WATER € Waitaki water allocation plan a step closer Scoop.co.nz 10/09/2004. A regional plan to guide water allocation in the Waitaki Catchment is a step closer with Parliament passing the special Waitaki legislation today, Environment Minister Marian Hobbs said. The new law amends the Resource Management Act and will establish an independent Water Allocation Board to develop the plan. The Board will have 12 months to finalise the plan. More… http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/PA0409/S00211.htm << back |