If National wins ...

[Daytr]

Dita de Boni at her best. Hard hitting opinion piece, so much better than the saccharine Mike Hosking dishes up.
Is she leaving the Herald? I hope she stays in main stream media as we need voices like this.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/ar...ectid=11503338

[westerly]

i

regarding electricity generation where it is used..... there was a plan to put turbines into the kiapera harbour .... but that got shot down.
then there was windmills on the coast between port wiakato and ragland...... that got shot down.....
so we could have solar panels on all the city house roofs....... well that is good but which factory is going to use all that power on a mid summer sunday afternoon?
and where is the power coming from on wednesday evening when south auckland factories are full steam ahead?

whats wrong with burning coal if the emissions are captured?
for that matter.... why is the left wing blocking windmills and tidal hydro in the north island?
and if government policy does enforce rooftop solar power...... will these panels be made in NZ?

so easy to criticize but no real depth forward planning .... this is the "perception" that the left wing shows the NZ public.
and the NZ public vote accordingly.

.

It was not the left wing as you call it that put these projects on the back burner

westerly

[winner69]

EZ, I take it that Labour are stuck with Little now until the next election and then pin their hopes on Jacinda for 2020.

Not the best position to be in at the moment is it.

[neopoleII]

""It was not the left wing as you call it that put these projects on the back burner""

to be fair i dont know who stopped the tidal hydro power system in the kaipera harbour
or the wind turbines on the west coast of port waikato / ragland.
but i can say with regard to the wind turbines there was alot of local public discussions /
questionaires, and door knocking to find peoples opinions and "change" peoples opinions.
the feel i got from this episode was that the very few local land owners in the area (( 1000 plus acre holdings))
had no issue... but many non locals protested endlessly to stop the windfarm.
how it stands now is.... yes a couple of turbines can be placed. and then environmental impact studies will be conducted for a decade or so
and then ...... after all the studies and lobby groups have done there thing a few more turbines can be placed.... etc etc......
until one day maybe the power company can have an economic wind generation development.
If you drive from the port to ragland you might past 50 houses over a 100 km journey. the place is isolated and the roads are rough and the few
people that live there had no issue. yet it seems a wind farm close to auckland is something that is not wanted.
all i can say..its not right wing policy to knock down renewable power.
i and alot of locals in the area a very pevved that the windfarm has been severely hamstrung.

with regards to the tidal hydro system, it was all over the media 2 years ago because certain lobby groups forced its shutdown.
there was talk of millions of fish being turned into burly (which is totally unfounded) but was enough to turn the project into an experiment
with one turbine spinning at 60 rpm. again not a right wing political move or motive.

so yes...... i cannot call it a left wing handbrake. but then if you read the fine print on the greens website regarding alternative power generation
you will see that there a few places in NZ that fit their criteria of alternative power generation..... what with ( visual pollution, sound pollution potential of burly production)
and the list goes on.
i am all in for hydro and wind power and looking after the environment, but sometimes some pc ideology just goes to far.
as for co2 capture from coal plants........ its being done and is viable it just needs public pressure ...... instead of blind public disdain.
and lastly.... the co2 output of electricity generation in NZ is minuscule to other nations.... but yes we can always do better.
thats my 2 cents for this week.....

[Daytr]

Well at least you corrected yourself NeopoleII as it certainly wasn't a left agenda to stop these projects.
Not all 'green' power generation makes sense and is not always that green in respect the impact on the environment. i.e. building a massive dam on a river obviously has a huge impact on the river system and down stream, let alone flooding a massive area.
I know someone who builds hydro schemes for a living and he had big doubts about the viability of the Kaipara project in regards how many turbines they would need etc and he specializes in turbines. In saying that the wind mills on the Waitaks seems to make sense to me.
I would suggest it is a National agenda to suppress alternative energy, particularly private solar, otherwise they would implement supportive policy and ensure that power put back into the grid was paid at a much better rate than it is. The government obviously has a massive interest in the current providers, let alone protecting the returns to their shareholder mates. They have shown a complete disregard for environment and have no effective policy in regards climate change, in fact have promoted fossil fuel exploitation, mining and cut the budget to DOC. Hardly a government that is green at all!

[westerly]

""It was not the left wing as you call it that put these projects on the back burner""

to be fair i dont know who stopped the tidal hydro power system in the kaipera harbour
or the wind turbines on the west coast of port waikato / ragland.
but i can say with regard to the wind turbines there was alot of local public discussions /
questionaires, and door knocking to find peoples opinions and "change" peoples opinions.
the feel i got from this episode was that the very few local land owners in the area (( 1000 plus acre holdings))
had no issue... but many non locals protested endlessly to stop the windfarm.
how it stands now is.... yes a couple of turbines can be placed. and then environmental impact studies will be conducted for a decade or so
and then ...... after all the studies and lobby groups have done there thing a few more turbines can be placed.... etc etc......
until one day maybe the power company can have an economic wind generation development.
If you drive from the port to ragland you might past 50 houses over a 100 km journey. the place is isolated and the roads are rough and the few
people that live there had no issue. yet it seems a wind farm close to auckland is something that is not wanted.
all i can say..its not right wing policy to knock down renewable power.
i and alot of locals in the area a very pevved that the windfarm has been severely hamstrung.

with regards to the tidal hydro system, it was all over the media 2 years ago because certain lobby groups forced its shutdown.
there was talk of millions of fish being turned into burly (which is totally unfounded) but was enough to turn the project into an experiment
with one turbine spinning at 60 rpm. again not a right wing political move or motive.

so yes...... i cannot call it a left wing handbrake. but then if you read the fine print on the greens website regarding alternative power generation
you will see that there a few places in NZ that fit their criteria of alternative power generation..... what with ( visual pollution, sound pollution potential of burly production)
a.

Neopole -Excerpt from the NBR, not generally recognized as left on the Port Waikato wind farm.

“But Contact, majority owned by Australian-owned Origin, is facing a fight on two fronts over the project, led by two well-connected, prominent businessmen who own land in the affected area.
Former dairy industry leader and ex Affco chief executive Ross Townshend is leading a challenge against the wind turbines while NBR Rich Lister Mark Stewart is trying to force Contact to use underground cable instead of the pylons the energy company plans to transmit electricity through to the national grid.”
Local maori and fishermen who may or may not be left objected to the Kaipara project.
Both projects were put on hold because of doubts over electricity surpluses.

westerly

[Major von Tempsky]

Well at least you corrected yourself NeopoleII as it certainly wasn't a left agenda to stop these projects.
Not all 'green' power generation makes sense and is not always that green in respect the impact on the environment. i.e. building a massive dam on a river obviously has a huge impact on the river system and down stream, let alone flooding a massive area.
I know someone who builds hydro schemes for a living and he had big doubts about the viability of the Kaipara project in regards how many turbines they would need etc and he specializes in turbines. In saying that the wind mills on the Waitaks seems to make sense to me.
I would suggest it is a National agenda to suppress alternative energy, particularly private solar, otherwise they would implement supportive policy and ensure that power put back into the grid was paid at a much better rate than it is. The government obviously has a massive interest in the current providers, let alone protecting the returns to their shareholder mates. They have shown a complete disregard for environment and have no effective policy in regards climate change, in fact have promoted fossil fuel exploitation, mining and cut the budget to DOC. Hardly a government that is green at all!

What a load of transparent cods!

(a) No electricity company wants to be committed to flooding the electricity system with wind an solar power when it is at a time of low demand.!

(b) No company wants to produce power of any type at a loss.

(c) Why should the National Government have to subsidise wind and solar power? They need to be able to stand on their own 2 feet or else get the chop!

[Sgt Pepper]

what a load of transparent cods!

(a) no electricity company wants to be committed to flooding the electricity system with wind an solar power when it is at a time of low demand.!

(b) no company wants to produce power of any type at a loss.

(c) why should the national government have to subsidise wind and solar power? They need to be able to stand on their own 2 feet or else get the chop!

here endeth the lesson.

[Daytr]

Exactly Sgt Pepper, MVT highlighted the issues with the current industry structure and the funny thing is he doesn't even realize it.

(a) exactly so the companies are not working in the best interest of NZers as all they care about is making profits, as is their mandate.
Why low demand? When do you think peak demand is MVT? Does the wind stop blowing at a particular time of day? Do tides stop running?
(b) If solar, wind etc makes other generation not profitable, then so be it, as its obviously not as competitive then.
(c) Who said anything about subsidies? You should hop to the left with ideas like that. At the moment self generators are under paid for their surplus power, so in fact its them that are subsidizing the power companies. If they were paid a market rate, it would make the economics of solar so much better. Something as an economist if that's what you are, (& I have my doubts considering a number of your posts ) would understand.

Energy is naturally occurring, it just requires capturing and distributing.
Why do we look at ways to make energy economic in the archaic sense of the word?
Its because the current western model is all about making money out of it.
What if it was provided purely to make the lowest cost energy available and cover only the costs of the infrastructure required?
Obviously the closer the generation source to the demand means less expense in relation to infrastructure.
Some forward thinking commentators say we are heading toward an era of free energy.
Fancy that!

[Daytr]

So the global head of Serco is in the country.
This is the company that also supplies military contractors to the US government.
According to Rupert Soames, Mt Eden prison has been run better under Serco than it was under National before they took it over.
Really! I will give National and the Dept of Corrections some credit here that it wasn't as bad and it just goes to show that Serco aren't about accepting responsibility, but denial and sweeping under the carpet. Their internal memos to staff also reflect the same intent. This a company that doesn't want transparency and doesn't want its staff to cooperate fully with any investigation. If you can't trust them, how can you do business with them? How can you let them run various government services? It is now apparent that Key is also considering them as a buyer of NZs state housing! So lets not get rid of them, lets not curtail their involvement in government services. Let's reward them! Lets give them more assets to run into the ground and corrupt.
Key would sell his grandmother, or more likely give her away !