“Even in Opposition, Hipkins is cratering our chances of getting the energy we need to keep homes warm and factories running through the winter,” says ACT Energy and Resources spokesperson Simon Court.

“He says he’s open to cross-party action on the energy crisis, but not if it involves natural gas.

“He’s destroying gas companies’ confidence that they’ll be able to operate without being made illegal under a future government. He’s telling energy companies, ‘don’t come here, don’t invest in exploration, don’t tap into local deposits, because if you do, we’ll shut you down’.

“This is exactly why ACT has called for a cross-party accord on natural gas.

“If Hipkins won’t listen to ACT, perhaps he’ll listen to his friends in the unions. With companies like Winstone Pulp and Oji Fibre proposing to shut down and lay off hundreds of workers, the energy crisis could become an employment crisis. Today I wrote to E tū and Unite Union calling for them to add their voice in support of natural gas.

“Labour wants jobs and warm nights without the gas, but the reality is we can’t have it both ways. New Zealand relies on gas to generate power throughout the year. In the winter we’re topping up supply by burning coal. Without natural gas, we’d be burning more coal, not just in winter, but in summer too.

“Even with more coal-burning we couldn’t fill the gap left by gas, because our power stations’ capacity is limited. So, what then? We can’t ‘dip into’ hydro when the lakes are depleted. We can’t magic up wind or sunshine. So instead, Labour is promising blackouts, or price spikes so painful that they make normal economic activity impossible.

“Labour’s answer is to lean harder on renewables. We could deregulate to make it easier for private companies to invest in renewables – in fact, we’re already doing that. The question for Chris Hipkins is why he would undermine those efforts to lift energy supply by restricting access to a different energy source, one that we already rely on today.”

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