Electrickery in #NZ

Nothing to see here, this is not the conspiracy you think it is …

When former prime minister, Jacinda Ardern exited the BlackRock headquarters in New York in May 2022, that was the month following the closure of New Zealand’s only oil refinery at Marsden Point in Northland.

The ‘official information’ about who Ardern met with and why, according to government responses, “doesn’t exist”.

The issue reignited more than a year later in August 2023 after an election announcement by incumbent prime minister, Chris Hipkins, celebrating a “world first” BlackRock investment partnership with the NZ Government.

An initial $2Billion investment fund would be the start of a $NZ42 billion ($US26 billion) green grid electricity project over 5 years to reduce the country’s fossil fuel use in electricity generation from 18% to 2%.

The inconsistency though is Hipkins’ claim that the government had worked with Blackrock over the last few months to produce the investment plan for “100% renewable energy” when the date on the cited report is October 2022.

Aside from the rapid investment requirement to complete the transition by 2030 the report states the major benefit as being a 45% reduction in the future cost of electric energy for electric vehicles.

Anyone hoping for a significant household benefit would be disappointed at the suggestion that electricity prices would avoid inflation then drop by 10% after 2030.

The unit price reduction may benefit other business developments but the scale of the investment by comparison is more than 3 Christchurch rebuilds, and while the country struggles with the aftermath of support required post Cyclone Gabrielle in areas of the East Coast the obvious question is what else goes on the back burner to support an electric car industry?

An election winner or electrickery? With Luxon suggesting the idea is okay, this may be a fait accompli either way.

The electricity sector in Aotearoa, New Zealand, contributes up to 70% of the gross emissions reductions required under the country’s 2050 net zero carbon target.

But wait a minute: While the prime minister’s dairy did record Ardern’s trip to Blackrock without detail and Hipkins and energy minister Megan Woods claimed credit for a whirlwind business deal touted as a virtue signaling world first, more recently …

wrote

When Dame Jacinda Ardern made an elevator pitch to powerful US businesspeople in BlackRock’s New York boardroom in May last year, Larry Fink was suitably impressed.
12 August 2023

In a twist of events the government received a not so enthusiastic response from Greenpeace.

“Here in New Zealand, the major sources of climate pollution are cars and cows. Any political party that is serious about climate change needs to come to the table with ambitious policies to address big dairy and transport emissions.”
Greenpeace