From Newsgroup: nz.general
On 18 Dec 2025 23:50:34 GMT, Gordon <
Gordon@leaf.net.nz> wrote:
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/582138/households-ponder-future-of-gas-as-supply-dwindles
https://nzgbc.org.nz/hubfs/Research%20and%20reports/NZGBC%20-%20Protecting%20Our%20Gas%20Supply%20Report%20-%20Single%20Pages.pdf
NZ is on the point of a (natural) gas shortage, as in only enough left for >the maufacturing. Proposal is to switch over to power.
As pointed out this will take some time and effort as well as money. The
time line is about a decade or two. Another iss us that the public seems to >be in denial which will delay the numbers cutting of by the required time.
The Parties need to agree that this is the plan and not sticking to it will >cause uncertanity, which the businesses do not like.
There is a certain sense of irony in that even if the previous Labour >Government had continued drilling it looks like NZ would still be in the
same situation as the sucess rate of drilling has been nil over the last 20 >years.
There is also the irony that NZ will probably go more electric as there is
no gas left.
Finally, the price of electricity will rise, as NZ does not have a excess >supply.
This will be an area worth watching.
While the issues raised are valid, any expectation of a bipartisan (National/Labour) approach is doomed. NZ simply does not do this, and
a shifting political landscape would probably mean any bipartisan
agreement does not endure. Such is the nature of politics.
However steps can and should be taken to curb the use of natural gas
sourced from dwindling supply. This does not need to be limited to
commercial or non-commercial use - there will be good cases for both
to use alternative energy, most likely electricity.
Personally I live in a house that came with bottled gas to supply a
cooking hob when I bought it. I would convert to an induction hob if
the price of LPG gets too high or reliability of supply is degraded.
Hot water, oven and heating are all electric. Those are the levers
that will drive households away from gas.
Governments need to come up with workable ways to encourage new
generation of base load electricity (ie excludes solar, wind and all
other forms of uncontrollable energy generation sources.
--
Crash McBash
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