This week phrases like "peak oil production", "move to a post-oil economy", and " investment in public transport" were heard in our Parliament! I'm not getting to excited though. At least peak oil is on they're radar screens but this feels like watching a car crash in slow motion. The inertia of our political system is painful. Like the car crash victim, we simply cannot react fast enough.
Below is a transcript of an exchange between Jeanette Fitzsimons (Co-Leader-Green) and the Prime Minister...
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JEANETTE FITZSIMONS (Co-Leader—Green) to the Prime Minister: What
instructions, if any, has she given her Ministers and her department
to develop a strategy for New Zealand's primary industry, transport,
tourism, and trading relationships to adapt to the reality of more
expensive and less available oil, in light of her statement of 18
April that the reason for high oil prices is "because we're probably
not too far short of peak production, if we're not already there?"
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK (Prime Minister): Ministers and officials are
working on how to increase the use of bio-fuels, as well as
researching improvements in vehicle fleet efficiency. As well, a New
Zealand energy strategy is being developed, and the National Energy
Efficiency and Conservation Strategy is being reviewed, and I thank
the member for the work she is doing in respect of that. The actual
date for peak oil production is a matter of debate but there is no
doubt that it will occur.
Jeanette Fitzsimons: Is she confident that the national energy
strategy will take sufficient account of her statement, with which I
agree, that oil is not going to get cheaper over the long term,
given Treasury's projection in the December Economic and Fiscal
Update that prices will drop to $54 a barrel, from $75 now, after
this year and the 2003 projections still on the Ministry of Economic
Development's website that forecast a drop in oil prices to $25 a
barrel by 2020 and constant prices thereafter?
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK: I think there will be fluctuations around the
price, but I have little doubt that the long-term trend will be for
the price to go higher. That is because of the huge demand for oil
now as a finite resource from the emerging mega-economies of China
and India and also the fact that the world's oil supplies tend to be
drawn from rather unstable parts of the world. All those factors are
leading great economies like that of the United States to start to
think actively about how to move to a post-oil economy.
Jeanette Fitzsimons: Does she agree that if cities are to remain
viable, investment must shift from new motorways into better public
transport, especially electric rail in Auckland and trolley buses in
Wellington, and what does her statement about peak oil imply for the
economics of a new Transmission Gully motorway at a time when the
affordability of private motoring is declining?
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK: I absolutely agree with the member about the
importance of investment in public transport. The investment that
has gone in over the last 6½ years is many times what was there
before then, and that is the right thing to do. I think for the
modern day and age, people want the independence the private vehicle
offers, but for the future I think we will see the private vehicle
increasingly be powered by sources other than oil.
Jeanette Fitzsimons: Has she received any reports that suggest that
our current high use of transport fuels, which is growing by nearly
4 percent a year, could be sustained by bio-fuels alone, and what
impact would that have on land available for agriculture in New
Zealand?
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK: No, I have not seen reports on that, but I
understand from colleagues that the Government is likely to be
setting a target around bio-fuels in June. I look forward to that,
because I think that will be part of our energy future.
Jeanette Fitzsimons: Will the Government consider establishing a
process involving both the Government and the private sector to
study the work done in Sweden, which plans to cut its reliance on
petroleum by 2020, and to plan a similar transition here?
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK: I am open to such suggestions. I am well aware
of the impetus that Sweden is giving to how to develop a post-oil
economy, and it is good to see those kinds of initiatives from
offshore now being reported in our own press, and quite fully. I
think we do need new initiatives, and I am certainly open to
discussing initiatives like that.
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Anyone else feel like a crash test dummy?
8:37:18 PM 
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