Oh sweet zombie Jesus, what new madness is this involving Shane Jones…
Govt considers ‘options’ after request to underwrite fuel exploration
The oil and gas lobby has asked the Government to underwrite the risk of fossil fuel exploration, with the taxpayer potentially taking “some or all” of the risk if new gas supplies fail to eventuate.
Resources Minister Shane Jones said he was considering options to support gas exploration, but “no decisions have been made either way”.
The letter — which was released to RNZ under the Official Information Act — said any costs to the Government from underwriting, hedging or guaranteeing oil and gas exploration would “fairly and most efficiently” reflect the risk created by Labour’s now-reversed 2018 ban on issuing new permits for offshore oil and gas exploration.
The Government has also blamed Labour’s ban for declining gas supplies, saying it worsened the investment environment for companies that might have wanted to explore.
…ok.
Ok.
Ok.
Let’s put aside the fact he’s a paid pimp for all these industries he wants to pass deregulation for.
Put aside the pork barrel driven politics of this venal old vulture.
Put aside the faffing about with Shakespearian oratory used to make pompous look subdued.
Put all that aside – let’s just look at what he’s being asked to consider here, and sending coded support out for, because it’s an environmental abomination and if you should be angry at ANYTHING this week, allow your rage to explode over this.
The reason the Oil and Gas industry weren’t exploring before the ban came into effect is because all the bloody gas has been tapped and the oil is too deep to profitably bring to the surface!
That’s why there were no off shore gas and oil exploration going on, he’s now telling the industry that he will underwrite all future oil and gas exploration so that a future Government can’t ban them again and put us on the hook for billions in damages for an exploration industry that wasn’t exploring because there was nothing to find!
Shane Jones is dumb enough to sign us up to some insanely stupid deal where the Government promises to return all costs if nothing even gets found, DESPITE these companies having already explored and found nothing!!!
Why would we sign a deal with Oil and Gas to pay them some insane amount of money if a future Government elected by the people wants to ban oil and gas exploration?
Why would we sign a deal with Oil and Gas to pay them some insane amount of money if they explore and find nothing?
Why is this even being considered and why is Shane Jones tacitly supporting it?
The Planet burns and Shane Jones fiddles.

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Jacinda canceled exploration and earnt brownie points for her next job but made no moves to fill the energy gap.We are now paying the price .
At least we’re paying it, not the climate and future generations.
You need to keep up with the facts, the easy energy had already been found and the cost of going deeper made it too expensive to recover what remains. The exploration companies would not be asking for the government to underwrite them if they thought it was a sure thing to find oil/gas.
Investigating a large pumped hydro as a way to get the most of renewable energy was a move to fill the energy gap but since it would have reduced profiteering in the electricity market it could not be allowed to happen so we are now paying the price for that with increasing power prices and various industry shutdowns putting workers out of jobs.
There is an abundance of energy coming from the Sun every day so the energy gap is only in your head and in others who fail to understand that we can substitute fossil fuels with clean energy.
crap how many wind and solar farms were built under the last government .
Trevor, change the record.
There has been no successful off shore exploration for how many years.
Not allowing any new permits did not stop those that had permits from continuing to explore.
It is patently obvious now that the exploration companies want the government to underwrite their commercial ventures that there is no significant gas or oil to be found.
They are basically asking Government to take all the risk but I haven’t heard anything about profit sharing.
To show how dumb you are you can’t even work that out.
But hey carry on and blame Jacinda if it makes you feel good. Sad really.
The price we are paying is because this govt. is not going ahead with plans the previous govt. was making and starting to implement.
Also, shareholders want profits. Those profits they get, could have been used to invest further in what we already do, hydro, thermal, sun and wind.
So, blame shareholders, not Jacinda.
Bonnie has tried to explain it all to you here, so hope you’ve read her comments and digested them.
Trevor, if there is so much f’ing oil out there why do the Tax payers need to under right their risk of finding some?
Trevor Please go to NZ Fabian Society website and watch the online Video lecture by David Keat a New Zealander and international expert in oil, gas, and energy engineering.
If you do this you will learn that is entirely possible for this country to supply future energy needs from renewable sources.
Engineers and scientists have planned it. All it need is politicians to implement it.
I read this and immediately put down Jones ‘we’ll see’ reponse to the request from the gas companies as some kind of quid pr quo deal in the making. If he actually does approve this outrageous request…look under the Shane Jones rock to see why.
One day all the idiots will wakeup and discover how much a year we are sending off shore to pay for fuel to burn out of the tail pipe .Imagine if every car was non fossil fueled how great the balance of payments would be .Till that time we continue to sink into the harbour much like our new ferries have .
Kiwis on the whole are proving to be pretty dumb at crasping the massive savings to be had by going electric or some other cheap fuel .The health benefits would also be massive as we would be breathing cleaner air
In the early days of awareness of future climate change there were people in NZAO trying out converting cooking oil which they collected from restaurants. And some were working and we were honestly trying. But the hoity toity didn’t like the backyard approach, they wanted big companies so we could be the Switzerland of the South while they were sipping their fine wines from above; not out in the fields stumping round like John Clarke, our hero. (If it weren’t for ya gumboots where would ya be..?)
When our people get a sufficiency of money they get all prrreetentious – ‘high in the instep’ they referred to it in Regency times according to the studies of Georgette Heyer. With neo-liberal-ism (but not to us) we have lost our jobs, our standard of living and houses, and for many, our souls. Can we find a way to hide behind a large rock from the predators, and make our own way for at least our kids’ lifetime?
Try John Wyndham The Chrysalids – an answer, a dream, against oppression and repression.
Past Monday, the International Court of Justice began to hear the largest climate case in its 80-year history. Almost 100 countries will share submissions before the World Court as judges seek to establish “the obligations of States in respect of climate change.”
Led by a coalition of small island states, the hearings mark the culmination of five years of collective campaigning initiated by Pacific Islands Students Fighting Climate Change to take ‘the world’s biggest problem to the world’s highest court’.
Watch the proceedings:
https://webtv.un.org/en/search?f%5B0%5D=un_entity%3A7830
https://webtv.un.org/en/asset/k1c/k1ce3oitwq?link_id=2&can_id=415d45fd755d9e345186a0661f4d96dc&source=email-climate-justice-at-the-hague&email_referrer=email_2548006&email_subject=climate-justice-at-the-hague
Geothermal energy is carbon neutral and not reliant on sun or wind and can provide peak generating capacity at anytime of the year, and is continuous while fossil fuels run out. It is a well studied known resource and far less a gamble than costly offshore fossil fuel drilling exploration. But big oil, has big money, that can buy a lot of lobbying, and political donation favours. While the NZ geothermal association that represents geothermal generation, is just a non profit group. But fingers crossed that commonsense will prevail. 129 geothermal areas have been located throughout NZ.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_power_stations_in_New_Zealand
https://www.nzgeothermal.org.nz/
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