Energy

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Not set out on their website.

• Redesign the Electricity Commission as a Sustainable Energy Commission with regulatory responsibility for all fuels.
• Require an urgent independent review of Transpower's planned grid upgrade with a view to developing alternatives that have less impact on the environment and better facilitate a sustainable energy system.
• Ensure that all major capital projects are tested against sustainable alternatives such as energy efficiency, fuel switching, renewable generation, load shifting and distributed generation.
• Investigate introducing 'progressive pricing', whereby the more energy you use, the more you pay, above a certain base level. (more here)

• Labour will retain our three electricity generating SOEs in 100 per cent public (i.e. Crown) ownership.
• Labour will halve New Zealand’s per capita transport emissions by 2040.
• Labour will not amend the CMA to provide for joint Ministerial approval (rather than only the Minister of Conservation, or other land-holding Minister) for mining access to Crown land.  
• Labour will therefore direct Solid Energy not to proceed with its liquid fuels lignite mining proposal.
• Labour will require all rental properties to be insulated to meet the New Zealand standard for insulation by 2016.
• Labour will ensure that 90 per cent of New Zealand’s electricity is generated from renewable sources by 2025
• Labour will strengthen the National Policy Statement for Renewable Electricity Generation 2011 by encouraging renewable generation with low environmental impacts, with a particular view to protecting rivers from being dammed.
• Market participants should be on notice that Labour believes there is ample evidence to conclude that there is insufficient competition in the retail and wholesale electricity markets. We are not convinced that the recent changes to market rules will cure the problem. After more than 10 years at attempts to create adequate competition, we are losing patience. (more here)

• Prohibit fracking and further oil exploration and instead invest in the development and establishment of widespread, small-scale, sustainable energy generation by households and communities, such as solar, wind, and micro-hydro.  Imported wind and ocean turbines are not a sustainable alternative.
• Invest in a national biocrop/biodiesel initiative to create large-scale employment and energy independence from lands not suitable for food crops or farming, including Māori-owned lands. (more here)

• Implement a renewable energy strategy to address our reliance on fossil fuels; to be developed in consultation with iwi; and which establishes a cross-party inquiry to investigate our response to the peak oil crisis.
• We support a moratorium on off-shore drilling to enable full consultation, particularly with mana whenua, on the appropriate mechanisms to ensure any adverse economic, environmental, social and cultural risks are managed.
• We will implement the Crown Minerals (Effective and Meaningful Engagement with Iwi, Hapū, and Whānau) Amendment Bill to ensure full consultation and negotiation with mana whenua / mana moana before any mining contracts are let. (more here)

Not set out on their website.

• Oppose levying the oil industry to build additional oil storage capacity – this is a strategic government policy and as such should be paid for by the government (it is really a “defence of the realm” issue)
• Oppose a standard royalty rate on new offshore oil discoveries being fixed in advance. We believe that the general policy should be a zero royalty rate with the government reserving the right to apply a royalty, on a case-by-case basis specific to rate of any medium to large oil field discovered.
• develop a National Energy Strategy
• fund all stages of investment of significant NZ inventions of new sustainable energy forms to ensure the innovation is not lost to NZ and is implemented as soon as practicable
• Invest in small-scale localised electricity generation projects. Reducing our reliance and burden on the National transmission grid.
• upgrade the national grid to ensure security of supply
• convert Transpower NZ Ltd to a public utility with the sole objective of transporting power through the National Grid at the lowest possible long-term cost to the consumer
• make it easier and cheaper for micro-generators to connect directly to local electricity networks (including a requirement for lines companies and electricity retailers to trade with micro-generators at 'fair' market rates)
• encourage the development of NZ owned and operated alternative energy schemes.
• Resist new big-scale hydro-electricity schemes that require the damming of untouched ‘wild rivers’ such as the Mokihinui. (more here)