This egregious bill attempts to deepen the country’s dependence on fossil fuels. It removes the ban on new offshore oil and gas exploration permits, it weakens the financial security provisions for decommissioning of offshore oil and gas installations, and changes the purposes of the primary act from regulating the mining industry (including fossil fuels) to promoting it.
This bill is problematic for six reasons.
- To avoid catastrophic climate change, we cannot burn known fossil fuel reserves, let alone look for new reserves;
- Our international commitments, as enshrined in the Paris Climate Agreement as well as various trade agreements, require us to reduce emissions and our dependence on fossil fuels;
- The search for offshore fossil fuels causes significant harm to ocean mammals in particular through seismic blasting;
- The exploration phase involves significant risk of oil spills, as witnessed by the Deepwater Horizon disaster;
- Oil companies will be incentivised to leave their infrastructure behind for the taxpayer to clean-up; and
- The Bill does not address the actual real world energy challenges New Zealand faces and slows down the clean energy transition.
