Where is the vision?

The country is facing a challenge: if it doesn’t rain enough, our power prices go through the roof in winter. 

A solution is needed to the dry-year problem. There are many options on the table: solar and battery storage, a pumped hydro scheme at Lake Onslow, increasing geothermal capacity, all of the above. The Coalition Government ignored all of those options. Instead, they’re wanting to import and burn more gas in winter.

A lot of ink has been spilled on Energy Minister Simon Watts' decision to invest at least a billion dollars into a Liquefied Natural Gas import terminal. When we consider how else we could solve the energy challenge, it's a terribly short sighted idea.

The whole announcement has made me spiral a bit. 

I've been reflecting on why. This government has been choosing fossil fuels over climate action for over two years. What makes this any different?

It's because the LNG terminal unmasks how visionless this country really is.

Renewable energy is up there with vaccines as one of the most life-changing technologies humanity has ever created. 

Put simply, there’s never been a time where we could prosper without burning stuff. For 11,000 years, there’s been a trade off between perpetually destroying the environment and living a good life. Plus, once it’s burnt, there’s no getting it back.

That is, until now.

Renewable energy is remarkable simply because you build a solar panel once and it makes free energy for 25 to 30 years. The upfront cost is made worth it by having a reusable fuel source.

The renewable energy revolution is the beginning of an abundant energy future. Gone will be the days of having to buy fuel every week: power can be made and used for dirt cheap at home.

You’d think that New Zealand would be rushing to transition away from disposable energy and towards an electrified, renewable economy. We import nearly all our fossil fuels: it’d be nice to run our economy on home grown electrons.

But, no. The Government is entrenching fossil fuels, in the LNG terminal, in crashing the EV market, in subsidising oil and gas exploration.

Electrifying the economy is a huge opportunity to save people money, cut pollution, and future proof the nation.

But we are a country without a plan: sleepwalking into the future while making decisions fit for the past. New Zealand feels rudderless.

Once you start to notice it, you see it everywhere. 

At Wellington City Council, a majority of councillors got cold feet about upgrading Courtenay Place. 

In transport, 1960s motorway thinking is back with a vengeance, despite international evidence that we should be building transport capacity with buses and trains.

In climate, coastal communities have been repeatedly hit by extreme storms but the government has basically told them that soon enough, they’ll be on their own.

Power prices, food prices, education, health. It all feels like last century’s ideas are breaking down, and what comes next is struggling to be born.

With no vision, people are leaving. The very high value workers like our builders, teachers, entrepreneurs… they're going to Australia. A country where the government has incentivised one-third of households to install solar on their roofs.

I want for this country to be ambitious, compassionate, and proactive about shaping the world. It will take more than complaints about the cost of council bathrooms and hoping mortgages get a little cheaper to solve this problem. We won’t be lucky enough to fail up into a better society. 

The LNG terminal is the antithesis of an ambitious, bold country fighting fit for the future. It reeks of kowtowing to a status quo that’s running on empty. 

I’m sick of it. We’re all sick of it. 

Who will bring some vision?