John Carnegie to lead fossil fuel industry group

BusinessNZ energy lobbyist John Carnegie to lead fossil fuel industry group

By Pattrick Smellie

Sept. 25 (BusinessDesk) - Long-time executive director of the Business New Zealand Energy Council, John Carnegie, is to take the reins as chief executive of the Petroleum Exploration and Production Association of New Zealand.

He was Genesis Energy's government relations specialist in Wellington before joining Business New Zealand a decade ago and spearheading its energy and climate change policy initiatives, including creation of the Business Energy Council. He also formulated the lobby's positions on reform of the Resource Management Act.

Carnegie replaces Cameron Madgwick, who has led PEPANZ since 2014 through a period in which a flurry of exploration earlier in the decade came to nothing. With the change of government in 2017, he then had to respond to the ban on further offshore oil and gas exploration which Energy Minister Megan Woods sprang on the industry in April 2018.

Carnegie led a significant investment by BEC in scenario planning to better understand New Zealand's future energy choices, with higher and lower tracks for the phase-out of fossil fuels to test implications for economic growth, energy affordability and security of energy supplies constant - the so-called 'energy trilemma'.

"I’m excited about this role and look forward to being a strong, collaborative advocate for the industry," Carnegie said in a statement. "The energy provided by natural gas and oil is critical to the prosperity and well-being of all New Zealanders. They have a major long-term role to play in the transition to a lower emissions world.

"I will advocate for evidence-based policies that will make New Zealand a better place for us all, ensuring we have sustainable, affordable and reliable energy."

Madgwick finishes at PEPANZ in early October before taking up a new role as chief executive of law firm GibsonSheat.

(BusinessDesk)

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