NEW ZEALAND ENERGY & ENVIRONMENT DIGEST   September 29, 2004             
CONSERVATION

€    Voters value the environment
The Dominion Post 22/09/2004. The high ranking voters gave the environment as a local body election issue in The Dominion Post-TNS poll should surprise no one, writes The Dominion Post in an editorial. New Zealanders are increasingly conscious that there is more to being clean and green than simply proclaiming that you are. Many have travelled overseas and seen the result of untrammelled development carried out without care for consequences. They realise that though central government sets the ground rules through legislation such as the Resource Management Act, it is local bodies which have the major role to play in ensuring that the clean green claim has some substance to back it up. More… http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3041561a6220,00.html

€    Eckhoff plans campaign on marginal strips
The Otago Daily Times 21/09/2004. Act NZ MP Gerry Eckhoff wants to drum the Department of Conservation out of the high country and will launch a national campaign in Wanaka on September 29 to raise awareness of high country access and marginal strips. Mr Eckhoff contacted the Otago Daily Times on Saturday to express his disgust with Doc’s determination to pursue marginal strip access up the Fern Burn (also known as Jack Hall’s Creek), near Glendhu Bay, Wanaka. Mr Eckhoff said Doc’s pursuit of marginal strip access up the Fern Burn ignored private property interests and values.
More… http://www.odt.co.nz/cgi-bin/getitem?date=21Sep2004&object=0920262696&type=html

€    Million dollar conservation project restores Raoul
Scoop.co.nz 23/09/2004. Rats have been successfully eradicated from New Zealand’s most remote nature reserve on Raoul Island in the Kermadec group, Conservation Minister Chris Carter announced today. Six months of intensive monitoring on the rugged 2941ha island, located 1000 km northeast of Auckland, has shown it is now free of rats after an ambitious $1m pest eradication project begun in July 2002. “This is wonderful milestone in New Zealand conservation,” Mr Carter said. “The Kermadec Islands, of which Raoul is the largest, are a goldmine of unique wildlife. They are home to some 23 plant species and five bird species that are found nowhere else in the world.
More… http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/PA0409/S00492.htm

€    Valuable wetlands ‘ruined’ by millionaire developer
NZPA 27/09/2004. Environment Waikato is investigating the alleged destruction of valuable wetland along the Awakino River in the North Taranaki Bight. The investigation is under way into whether a newly developed pond, dam and earthworks covering a hectare on the northern bank of the Awakino River has breached the Resource Management Act. “We are treating it quite seriously,” Environment Waikato resource officer Colin Ferguson said. The Department of Conservation had also been made aware of the damage, he said. “Awakino is a really significant waterway in terms of whitebait habitat and natural fisheries.” Mr Ferguson had informed the German owner, Karl Reipen, by letter, that all work must be stopped. More… http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?storyID=3595031&thesection=news&thesubsection=general

ENERGY INDUSTRY

€    Vector trustees fight to keep jobs
The Dominion Post 23/09/2004. Three trustees of the Auckland Energy Consumer Trust are fighting legal moves to replace them with candidates who favour the privatisation of Vector.  Trust chairman Warren Kyd has sought their dismissal and wants to replace them with ACT-aligned Auckland Now candidates who have campaigned for a stockmarket listing of up to 25% of Vector, New Zealand’s biggest power lines company with assets worth more than $3 billion. The three are taking legal advice after the release yesterday of a High Court ruling which said the three tried to improperly use the processes of the trust to stop a commercial proposal, Project Nugget, that Vector required trustees’ approval for.  More… http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3041972a13,00.html

€    Prime Group Launches Formal Takeover Bid For NZ’s Powerco
Dow Jones 21/09/2004. Australia’s Prime Infrastructure Group late Monday formally launched its takeover bid for New Zealand’s Powerco Ltd. The takeover offer follows last month’s deal by Prime Infrastructure to buy a 53.7% stake in Powerco from local councils for NZ$2.15 a share. The price valued Powerco, New Zealand’s second largest energy networks company, at NZ$679 million. Under New Zealand takeover law, Prime was required to make a full bid at the same price to the rest of Powerco’s shareholders. More…


€    Aussie bidding war may dash Vector’s NGC hopes
The Sunday Star-Times 26/09/2004. A competitive bidding war may prove a bigger obstacle to Vector’s securing control of gas pipelines group NGC than the weeks of bitter in-fighting that have wracked the Auckland-based electricity firm.  “There’s an attitude out there Vector is a shoo-in to win NGC if it can only get to the starting line,” said one energy analyst. “I don’t know where they get that from.” He said any one of several Australian bidders - who had access to capital at lower cost - were far better placed than Vector to lodge highly competitive bids for the 66% of NGC owned by Australian Gas Light. He also said other likely New Zealand-based bidders - including Genesis Power, Meridian Energy and Mighty River Power - had assets offering a far better fit with NGC. More… http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3045602a13,00.html

WATER ISSUES

€    Mackenzie Basin water users agree to work together
Scoop.co.nz 20/09/2004. The major water users in the Mackenzie Basin, Meridian Energy and farmers have agreed to begin negotiations on how irrigation can be provided to farmers in the upper Waitaki catchment. They will also seek to negotiate a common approach to water allocation in the Upper Waitaki catchment. A successful outcome to discussions would result in a joint presentation to the Waitaki Catchment Water Allocation Board to seek inclusion of the agreed approach in the Waitaki River Regional Plan. Representatives of upper Waitaki farming interests and Meridian Energy, have agreed that a common approach is likely to achieve the best outcome for the Mackenzie basin community.
More… http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/BU0409/S00257.htm

GLOBAL WARMING

€    The Arctic: Earth’s Early Warning System
Environment News Service 19/09/2004. An Arctic native leader offered a passionate plea to the U.S. government and its citizens Wednesday to aggressively combat climate change. Addressing a Senate Commerce Committee hearing on global warming, Inuit Circumpolar Conference Chair Sheila Watt-Cloutier said the Inuit are already suffering dramatic changes to their Arctic environment. Watt-Cloutier, who represents the 155,000 Inuit in Greenland, Canada, Alaska and the Russian Federation, described the Inuit struggle as “a snapshot of what is happening to the planet.”
More… http://www.alternet.org/envirohealth/19930/

KYOTO PROTOCOL

€    Putin tells ministries to salvage Kyoto
The New Zealand Herald 23/09/2004. Russian President Vladimir Putin has told key ministries to sign the Kyoto protocol on global warming in a step towards salvaging the UN plan, international environmentalists said on Wednesday. The WWF conservation group said the 1997 pact, which is dependent on Russia’s final approval if it is to come into force despite a US pullout in 2001, could be ratified by the Russian parliament within the next few weeks. Russian officials were not immediately available to comment.  
More… http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?reportID=57030&storyID=3594035

FISHERIES

€    Axe taken to $300m hoki quota
NZPA 24/09/2004. The Government has taken drastic steps
to rebuild the deepwater hoki fishery, slashing the allowable commercial catch by 80,000 tonnes to 100,000 tonnes. Fisheries Minister David Benson-Pope said the change would take effect from next Friday. The move was widely expected, but it is further bad news for an industry which has been
hit by the high dollar, rising fuel costs and a sluggish international market. Benson-Pope’s moves comes a year after former minister Pete Hodgson reduced the commercial catch by 10 per cent to 180,000 tonnes at the request of the industry. In 2001, the catch was 250,000 tonnes a year.
More… http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/businessstorydisplay.cfm?storyID=3594385&thesection=business&thesubsection=fishing&thesecondsubsection=general&thetickercode=

BIOSECURITY

€    West Auckland on moth watch as weather gets warmer
The Western Leader 24/09/2004. Authorities fear the painted apple moth may resurface in west Auckland as the weather gets warmer. The Australian pest is considered a major risk to the country’s horticulture industry. Its arrival in west Auckland three years ago sparked a controversial spray campaign by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. The aerial part of the exercise finished in autumn and results indicate the moth has gone. But the ministry is warning people to watch out for the pest over the next few weeks.
More… http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3042997a7693,00.html

RURAL ISSUES

€    Rainfall tax plan worries farmers
NZPA 24/09/2004. Farmers are warning that a “rainfall tax” proposed by Horizons Regional Council for the Makirikiri flood-control scheme is a precedent landowners throughout New Zealand should beware of. Ewen Grant, a farmer from Turakina near Marton, says the regional council tax means landowners living anywhere upstream of flood works could end up paying for downstream benefits. “It means Taihape farmers could have to pay for flood control down the Rangitikei simply because it rains on their properties.” However, Horizons operations group manager Allan Cook says other schemes in Manawatu are rated similarly. More…
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?storyID=3594286&thesection=news&thesubsection=general

SUSTAINABILITY

€    FA Cup study set to help the planet
BBC News Online 24/09/04. A study of the ecological impact of the FA Cup Final is set to help architects design more efficient sports grounds. Researchers from Cardiff University are measuring how much energy, fuel, food, water and drink is consumed at the annual clash of Britain’s top teams. The eco audit of one of Britain’s major sporting events studied this year’s Manchester United-Millwall clash. But it is also working out the eco “footprint” of Wales’s 74,525 capacity Millennium Stadium. Cardiff University researchers aim to calculate how much of the earth’s resources go into staging top-flight sporting events such as the FA Cup.  More… http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/3680244.stm

€    Sustainable Business Network supports EnergyWise Rally 2004
Scoop.co.nz 20/09/2004. Sarah Burke, Project Manager for the Sustainable Business Network (SBN), will be partnering former Formula One driver Chris Amon in a Toyota Prius Hybrid in the 2004 EnergyWise Rally. One of the objectives of the SBN, through its GreenFleet programme, is to help organisations configure and operate their vehicle fleets in a way that has minimal impact on the environment. “GreenFleet also helps organisations to make the best decisions about the transport options available to them through business travel planning,” said Sarah. More… http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/SC0409/S00063.htm 

 
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