Stuff reports that a government built a new power plant costing $150 million in the wrong place, and is now considering moving it at a further cost of $30m.
This is serious incompetence. The chair of the Electricity Commission should go over this, along with the responsible Minister, who at the time I think was Pete Hodgson. It is a waste of $30 million of taxpayers money done just to make it look like the government was solving the energy problem.
Nick Smith points out that this is really a problem with the Resource Management Act. Getting a resource consent for a new power station is so difficult, that this is probably why they decided to go with the bad location.AdultBureau
Experts describe the standby power station at Whirinaki, in Hawke's Bay, as a white elephant, built "in an absolute panic" after the 2003 power crisis.
...
But industry experts say the station was built in Hawke's Bay simply because there was an existing resource consent.
"It really was a stupid, politically motivated band-aid decision," said energy consultant John Noble.
"It's the wrong sort of power station, it was built in the wrong place, and it was built for the wrong reasons."
...
But industry experts say the station was built in Hawke's Bay simply because there was an existing resource consent.
"It really was a stupid, politically motivated band-aid decision," said energy consultant John Noble.
"It's the wrong sort of power station, it was built in the wrong place, and it was built for the wrong reasons."
This is serious incompetence. The chair of the Electricity Commission should go over this, along with the responsible Minister, who at the time I think was Pete Hodgson. It is a waste of $30 million of taxpayers money done just to make it look like the government was solving the energy problem.
Nick Smith points out that this is really a problem with the Resource Management Act. Getting a resource consent for a new power station is so difficult, that this is probably why they decided to go with the bad location.AdultBureau
Comments
And he should know, he built the damned thing!I sympathise with what it was trying to do, and there is some merit to it... but it's just a nightmarish bit of legislation that simply does not work.AdultBureau
Sorry, by "built" I mean "wrote". Or, at least, played a substantial role.AdultBureau
Nick Smith didn't actually have much input into the RMA. It was mainly written by Geoffrey Palmer while he was Prime Minister and Minister of Conservation. I'm pretty sure that Simon Upton was the responsible Minister when it was actually enacted in 1991. Nick Smith was a first-term MP then, and so realistically probably didn't have too much input into it.I agree with the principle of it as well, but the implementation has been close to a disaster.AdultBureau
You seem better informed than me on this point. I got that impression from a lecture given by the Dean during my paper on Hydraulics, but that was 5 years ago and I could easily be misremembering. :(AdultBureau