Brownlee Gerry: Electricity (Renewable Preference) Repeal Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
Brownlee Gerry: Electricity (Renewable Preference) Repeal Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:651;Page:914] 
Hon GERRY BROWNLEE (Minister of Energy and Resources) 
: 
 I move  
That the Electricity (Renewable Preference) Repeal Bill be now read a second time 
. It has been very interesting listening to the speeches this evening from those who are opposed to this bill. I would have thought that the real effort that New Zealand should be making in the energy sector was to lower emissions. That is what the game should be all about. The thermal energy ban introduced by the Labour Government is a large and pretty obvious impediment to achieving that particular result. 
I will explain that in a minute but first I want to challenge some of the statements made earlier suggesting that the ban while it was in place was about protecting New Zealand’s clean green image and about making sure that when New Zealanders in the climate change sphere attend international conferences we can tell a so-called good story. A little bit of a look behind the scenes tells a pretty ugly story. In the time that the Labour Government was in office the extent of production of energy from renewable sources fell from about 72 percent to about 66 percent. That is the record of the people who say they care about New Zealand’s clean green image and about being able to say the right sort of rhetoric at international conferences. They simply saw the extent of renewable energy fall. The image that was supposed to be created was that they had great care for the environment but the record shows quite the opposite. 
It is also interesting to note that as this policy has been in place and as the Labour Government struggled with the whole concept of having a vibrant energy policy the retail price for electricity paid by New Zealanders when they turned on the light turned on the heater washed the clothes made the toast boiled the kettle or whatever rose from 1 November 2001 through to 1 November 2008 by a staggering 63 percent; it rose by 63 percent through those 8 years during which Labour was saying it was about protecting our clean green image and about having the right story to tell when we attend international fora on climate change. What is worse is that when that price rise of 63 percent is broken down it works out that electricity prices for consumers rose each year—each of those 8 years—2½ times the rate of inflation. 
Clearly something has been going wrong. The price has been going through the roof and we can also see that the extent of energy generated from renewable sources has fallen. Worse than that the emissions profile of the energy sector has massively increased. 
I know that the opponents of this bill tonight will say that all of that is just because we had a few years of bad hydrology. Well those same years that saw the 63 percent price rise—2½ times the rate of inflation each year—included 4 years when we had a supposedly one-in-60-year scenario to deal with. That indicates gross neglect of the generating capacity of this country. 
What this Government is saying in removing the thermal ban is simply this: what is the elephant in the room— 
Hon Darren Hughes 
: Ha ha! 
Hon GERRY BROWNLEE 
:—and I use that term somewhat advisedly I might say and I say “what” not “who”—in the energy sector? It has to be the large coal-belching plant at Huntly. I can tell members that when that plant was commissioned in 1987 it was to be a peaking plant; it was to come on whenever we needed it. But it has been a baseload plant for some years now running for 7 8 9 10 or more hours a day burning coal as it goes. That plant alone contributes the largest part of the emissions from the energy sector. 
 If we wanted to do something about it the smart thing to do would be to say that that plant would be retired that plant would be stood down and we would meet the costs of replacing it with an e3p plant or some such other plant—a combined-cycle plant. If that were to happen if the megawatt capacity of Huntly coal were replaced by gas New Zealand’s emissions from energy in this year when thermal power has run at extraordinary rates would fall by over 3000 tonnes. Why would we want to have a policy in place that prevents that? That is what the ban does and that is why we are going to repeal it. 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: Because it would take it down to nothing you fool. 
Hon GERRY BROWNLEE 
: The member over there says that the ban would take the emissions down to nothing. Tell me where the projects are! I ask Mr Mallard to tell me where this country is going to get megawatt capacity in the time that we need it—in the next 5 or 6 years—that is able to be fired up to give electricity to the grid at very short notice. It simply is not there. So the Government is saying that we reject Labour’s idea of belching out lots of carbon dioxide through coal burning over successive years and we are saying to the industry that it should look at some alternatives. 
It gets worse. When we start to consider the response of the Labour Party in Government to emergency generation we might have thought it would say: “Why don’t we build one of those highly efficient combined-cycle gas plants that we could fire up very very quickly”— 
Hon David Parker 
: It’s very expensive when you don’t use them much. 
Hon GERRY BROWNLEE 
: The previous Minister of Energy says it is expensive so let us not put a price on carbon dioxide emission. He does not care; he says it is acceptable to use the solution that his Government came up with. Here is how it works. New Zealand consumers through the levies on their power bills have paid some $230 million over the last 5 years to the Electricity Commission. The Electricity Commission’s response to a requirement that it have generation in reserve was to build a diesel-fired plant at Whirinaki. 
Chris Auchinvole 
: Diesel? 
Hon GERRY BROWNLEE 
: A diesel-fired plant. The “We don’t like thermal energy and let’s clean up the emissions from energy” Labour Government built a diesel-fired plant at Whirinaki. And what did it burn this year? Well it was not 10 million litres of diesel. 
Chris Auchinvole 
: Was it 12? 
Hon GERRY BROWNLEE 
: It was not 12 million; it was closer to 70 million litres. One has to ask what sort of argument against this bill there can be from people who have such a shoddy record. 
We have a determination that the emissions profile from energy will change. We believe that part of that is rapid fuel substitution. We also believe that backing up some of those renewable projects with the speed of thermal generation is going to be very very important because this country cannot go on having power price rises 2½ times the rate of inflation. That is the Labour Government’s record.