We Want Cheaper Power And We Want Our People To Own It – Te Pāti Māori
Te Pāti Māori has today its Energy Sovereignty policy, a plan to cut power costs, build Aotearoa’s energy future and shift ownership into the hands of whānau, hapū, iwi and communities.
“Every party is talking about generating more electricity. We’re asking the question they keep avoiding: who will own it?” said Te Pāti Co-Leader Rawiri Waititi
“If we replace fossil fuels with renewables but leave ownership and profits concentrated in the same hands, we haven’t transformed the system. We’ve just changed the technology.
“Participation is not sovereignty. Ownership is.”
Te Pāti Māori will:
• Establish a $1 billion Energy Sovereignty Fund to build Māori and community-owned energy assets.
• Develop a long-term National Energy Plan.
• Give regulators stronger powers to act against excessive pricing and profits.
• Establish fair value so whānau and communities are properly paid for the energy they generate and store.
• Set a pathway to Energy Sovereignty by 2035.
Co-Leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer said the renewable transition cannot become the next extractive economy.
“Our whenua, wai and resources have generated wealth for others for generations. We will not allow that history to repeat itself under a green label.
“We want whānau generating power, marae storing it, iwi owning generation, Māori businesses building it and the wealth staying in our communities.
“Other parties want to build more power. We want our people to own it.
Cut the Power. Build the Power. Own the Power.
Power to the people.”
More of this please! Waititi is 100% correct that replacing corporatised fossil fuel power plants with corporatised renewable energy power plants only solves one tiny slice of the total problem with our energy system. Renewable energy systems are much quicker and easier to set up in a decentralised way, owned by the whānau, hapū, and iwi (or families, communities and regions) who depend on the energy they generate.
Side note: Cyano-tories will sometimes bleat about how we need offshore extractors (‘investors’) to help us build more renewable generation faster. But they inevitably want to put their money into utility-scale power plants, from which they can extract far more money than they put in, forever (or until they sell it to someone else to do the same). Public funding, balanced out by carbon taxes, can also be used be used to build more renewable generation faster. Along the lines of what TPM have laid out.