Priceless that the Taranaki Chamber of Commerce representative claims a happy co-existence between fracking and farming on the day Chinese news media report concerns about the impact of the petroleum industry on dairy production in Taranaki. I guess carrying milk in a truck previously used to cart contaminated fracking waste doesn’t go down so well with consumers after other recent Fonterra health scares.
In an age of 400 parts per million of CO2 in the atmosphere, the oil industry line of ‘working towards a greener economy’ while exploring for more fossil fuels is like f***king for virginity.
The local landowner Councillor Akuhata-Brown made reference to has, like many other individuals and companies, made a large amount of money and created a lot of jobs in the green economy. So the choice is not between a high standard of living and the environment as Mr Chaudhari and his ilk claim, rather the question is what kind of economy do we want – cleaner, sustainable and more stable economic development or a volatile boom and bust race to burn the planet?
With a few central government policy tweaks that made polluters pay and rewarded renewables, the economy would shift very quickly to a resilient situation that built rather than undermined the reputation of New Zealand and our products.
The National Party scrapped regulations like the requirement to include a portion of renewables in all fuel sold, gutted an already weak ETS and continues to ignore the scientific and economic imperatives necessitating a just and enduring transition away from fossil fuels. While it is understandable most political parties focus on the short-term, voters next year should insist all political party manifestos commit to a plan that weans the country off fossil fuels production and consumption by 2050.