Associate Energy and Resources Minister Shane Jones stressed the importance of turning to coal on AM on Wednesday morning, .
“The gases in the ground sadly have been stigmatised in the last six to seven years, and we are going to rely increasingly on coal because of the uncertainty of gas,” he said.
“But we are going to get the key players together including Todd [Energy] and all of the electricity generators and get them to play good because we need certainty – not only for electricity prices but the gases in the ground,” he explained.
Coal is not the only fossil fuel Jones is keen for New Zealand to embrace again.
Figures released by an industry body show gas production has dropped by nearly 30 percent so far in 2024, on top of a 12.5 percent drop in production last year.
The figures are concerning for those who rely on gas – such as schools, hospitals, universities, food & chemical processors and electricity generators.
“We need the investment to extract it, which is why I’m changing the law, to make it a lot more permissive, to enable people to go and extract and look for gas and also reside the burdensome nature of the decommissioning which was imposed on the industry by the last Government,” said Jones.
He said the country doesn’t ship in gas from overseas and that “we shouldn’t be contemplating that.”
“We are sitting on an enormous amount of gas,” said Jones.