Hayes John: Climate Change (Emissions Trading and Renewable Preference) Bill — In Committee 
Hayes John: Climate Change (Emissions Trading and Renewable Preference) Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:649;Page:18177] 
JOHN HAYES (National—Wairarapa) 
: 
 Mr Chairperson— 
Hon Member 
: This’ll be good! 
JOHN HAYES 
: Well it will be good. I would like to comment on Jeanette Fitzsimons’ comments about the exemptions that are able to be made by the Minister of Energy. The fact is that this legislation which was drafted by the Minister—at least he is responsible for it—is incomprehensible. I refer members to new section 62G(1)(b) and (c) in new Part 6A which is in clause 67: “(b) the specified generation plant or the increased capacity referred to in section 62C(4) will be necessary for the purpose of mitigating the effects of an emergency (whether present or future); or c) the specified generation plant will be necessary for the purpose of forming”. What does that mean I ask the Minister. 
I now refer the Minister to new section 62G(1)(i): “in respect of which fossil fuels will provide less than a prescribed proportion of the total fuel energy input for the generator or generators constituting the plant in any”. This stuff is nonsensical. I do not believe that the Minister understands what that subparagraph means or paragraph (e) below it or new subsections (1A) (1B) and (2) below that. This is a long way from comprehensible plain language which should apply to any legislation being passed in this House. 
I suggest to the Minister that far from the Government moving New Zealand towards the goal of 90 percent renewables the proportion has actually fallen from 72 percent in 1999 to 66 percent in 2007. The Government’s interventions in the electricity industry have surely I say to the Minister been contradictory. Renewable energy developments like Project Aqua and the Dobson hydro project were stopped by Government decisions. 
Hon Darren Hughes 
: Sandra’s just squawked that out already. 
JOHN HAYES 
: That is dead right—she has—and I am repeating it. I am asking the member to understand that we are very very unhappy about the Climate Change (Emissions Trading and Renewable Preference) Bill. 
Of the new energy generation being built by this Government 75 percent has been thermal. So the Government is suggesting here theoretically a radical change in policy. 
The distinction in this bill between new power stations being either baseload or peak-load is nonsensical. Ironically New Zealand’s biggest greenhouse gas emitter the Huntly power station was built as a peak-load station as my colleagues have pointed out and it was built in 1987. 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: Seven of them. 
JOHN HAYES 
: The member has pointed out that we have another six of them and the Government could build another one without any difficulty at all. The smart way to provide an incentive-based system for renewable energy over thermal generation is through the price signal of an emissions trading scheme. That is why National members have consistently advocated that the electricity sector should be the first sector to be introduced to an emissions trading scheme—not our farmers in the Wairarapa not our foresters in the Wairarapa and not our fishing people in the Wairarapa. The point of putting the electricity sector into an emissions trading scheme straight up is that it would provide a price signal to consumers and to the industry every day every minute of the day. That would provide an incentive against further thermal electricity production and would avoid the distinction between baseload stations and peak-load stations. The emissions trading scheme will encourage substitution for the more efficient thermal generation and earlier retirement of old dirty technology. I think it is noteworthy that renewable generator Meridian Energy and the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment have rejected the Government’s concept of a moratorium. 
We in the National Party support the 90 percent renewable energy target. We have confidence that the pricing signal of the emissions trading scheme as well as our proposed reforms of the Resource Management Act will give impetus to new renewable energy generation without any arbitrary or inefficient moratorium as proposed in this bill. 
I think new section 62F which enables the Minister to grant exemptions to this policy is basically a down payment on future corruption and I do not want to see it. I think a lot of work needs to be done on this legislation to turn it from gobbledegook into plain language so that ordinary people can understand it.