Hobbs Marian: Biofuel Bill — First Reading 
Hobbs Marian: Biofuel Bill — First Reading 
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Hon MARIAN HOBBS (Labour—Wellington Central) 
: 
 I welcome the National Party’s support for the first reading of the Biofuel Bill and its commitment to an honest and clear debate in the select committee. It is obvious that that member has not been a member of the Local Government and Environment Committee because in that particular committee we have very good working relationships most of the time—it does sometimes depend on the membership—and that has been worthwhile particularly when we have been dealing with the waste legislation. With that legislation I saw the most honest work I have experienced in my 11 years in this House in a select committee. So I am very proud of the Local Government and Environment Committee. 
I am also very proud of this Government’s response to the challenges surrounding climate change. We have to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions. Our Minister has chosen to move on a number of fronts mainly because our greenhouse gas emissions come from a number of different activities. New Zealand’s distinctive greenhouse gas emissions portfolio has always been of interest. When one is with a European group whose members say: “You mean half of it comes from your animals?” with a look of great query on their faces one has to gently explain about methane and agriculture. This completely puzzles the Germans as it does people from many other European countries. They just do not understand that sort of issue. 
Elliott Morely the previous Minister in the British Government who was responsible for climate change policy was extremely complimentary when he was here of the manner in which we are dealing with this issue in New Zealand under our emissions policy. In other words not one sector alone or not one contributor alone is bearing the total cost and responsibility. Every emitter is inside the framework. So yes the agriculture sector will come on board later and yes it is quite obvious because it has some enormous scientific research issues to face in order to find some of the solutions there. 
Questions of deforestation are being dealt with upfront as are those relating to the energy needed to power industry and also the energy that is needed to power our homes. So a focus comes on renewable energy rather than a reliance as has been developing on fossil fuels in terms of thermal energy. Our focus is therefore on conserving and using less energy in our homes. It is about the kind of energy we use and the fact that we should be conserving it particularly through how we build. So we have the Minister of Housing involved in that as well and the building industry in terms of how we insulate and heat our homes. 
Then there is transport. As the Minister said tonight 40 percent of New Zealand’s emissions come from transport and there is a commitment out there to halve that by 2040. When we look at the options we see a move to efficiency in the movement of freight. Too often when people talk about transport they are thinking about the movement of people but if members sit in their offices and look down Lambton Quay they will see that it is not about the movement of people they see during the day; it is small freight on the move in vans and trucks up and down and through our cities. So there has to be some efficiency that is gained there. A lot of work needs to happen in that particular area. 
The other option is the move in the transport of people out of private vehicles and into public transport. We have already seen the investment the Government has made. I look at my own area of Wellington and see the investment that has been made there—the investment in trains. Our trains—and I particularly think of the trains coming in from the Wairarapa—were pretty basic to put it mildly. They were very rarely on time. So what has gone in there? Seven new sets of trains have gone in and they are beginning to run on time. And never let anyone talk to me or lecture me about the efficiency of private companies when the private company that bought and sold our train system totally let down this country in the way it managed both its rolling stock and the actual railway lines. So whenever anyone quotes the sort of God-given efficiency of private enterprise I can think only of what happened to our railways in New Zealand when it went into private enterprise. 
Gerry Brownlee 
: Don’t be so narrow! 
Hon MARIAN HOBBS 
: No I am not narrow; I just get very suspicious of people who are so black and white and rigid in their presumption that private necessarily is always good. So we in Wellington have come in and put an extraordinary amount of money into trains. 
We also thank God solved the issue around trolley buses and now we will see those trolley buses. If members have ever been down Lambton Quay and seen the diesel buses go through they will notice the noise they make in that narrow canyon of Lambton Quay and Willis Street compared with the quietness of the wonderful trolley bus. 
There is still room to improve so we come to biofuels—the subject of this bill. Biofuels lower emissions. Biofuels also—and I did not notice this in Mr Brownlee’s speech—lower our dependence on fossil fuels. I think that is quite important. It is not only that they are carbon neutral in themselves but that a number of people out there are reminding us that oil may not last forever. It is a fossil fuel. So I think I read that this Biofuel Bill will require 3.4 percent of total fuel sold by oil companies to be biofuel by 2012. This requirement will begin from either the passage of the legislation or July 2008 and at that stage it will be 0.53 percent. I heard Mr Brownlee say he was worried about the capacity of oil companies to meet the obligation. I understand that 0.53 percent is almost about where they are right now. So as it goes up gradually over those numbers of years to 3.4 percent I think it is attainable. 
However a number of questions are asked around these particular issues. 
Gerry Brownlee 
: You know; you’re in the pocket of oil companies. 
Hon MARIAN HOBBS 
: I doubt that anyone would ever say I was in the pocket of an oil company. That completely amuses me. 
What is the Government proposing regarding biofuels? The Government is developing and introducing a biofuels sales obligation for the sale and use of biofuel blends in New Zealand. The aim is to ensure that oil companies selling petrol or diesel must also sell a small amount—3.4 percent—of biofuels. It would be up to the oil companies—and this is important—to determine which combination of biofuels which blend levels to use and where to market them. So inside this—and this is worth exploring in the select committee—there is actually quite a lot of room for the oil companies to move. It is not saying that every time I lift the handle to put petrol in my car that 3.4 percent of that particular blend will be going into my car. It may not be. As I think Mr Brownlee pointed out it could also be just in stationary engines and not actually in the car fleet. 
The second question asked at the end is: what are the benefits of biofuels? There are a number of benefits not only to do with the lowering of emissions; they are about air quality and human health and if we are looking at Auckland then anything we can do—as we did—around the amount of sulphur and diesel used is therefore to meet the needs of improved air quality. Better fuel lubrication reduces deposits in diesel engines. It is also non-toxic biodegradable and speeds up the break down of any spills of diesel that may be made and that is also important in a country with so many rivers. 
Thirdly does the use of biofuels affect vehicles? Modifications are not necessary for petrol or diesel engines using low-level biofuel blends. Petrol engines tuned correctly for the use of ordinary petrol would normally not exhibit any problems when using bio-ethanol petrol blends of up to 3 percent. Diesel engines tuned correctly could take biofuel blends of up to 5 percent bio-diesel. Most modern vehicles are compatible. 
There is the controversy around biofuels that they can compete with growing for food—and we have heard a lot about that in recent weeks—and that they can affect the biodiversity by massive agricultural farming. That question about biodiversity is about how one farms not about whether one farms for biofuel. It is that that we have to look at. When there has been a wholesale taking out of certain kinds of rainforests in order to replace them with certain plants either maize or some other palm oil plants there are some real problems around that. It is the same thing when working out about timber. There are ways of actually being able to do that. The world is far better now at looking at and being able to measure whether something is sustainable. In New Zealand biofuels may come from initially tallow animal fats and afterwards from things like wood waste syngas derived from biomass or algae grown on sewage ponds. There is room to develop here. 
Finally I would like to say that this whole issue around climate change and managing these emissions is an incentive for us to get going in research and actually get out there and find some solutions to the problems. For too long we have said that this issue is so big that there are no answers. This bill is an incentive to companies and people to start providing the answers. Thank you.