KEY POINTS:
The Government's energy strategy came under scrutiny in Parliament yesterday, as National MPs queried its progress on renewable energy sources.
National Party climate change spokesman Nick Smith said New Zealand would never reach the 90 per cent renewable electricity pledge, outlined in the Government's energy strategy this month, while it continued to slow down energy projects.
He said the Conservation Department had been sitting on an application by Bay of Plenty Electricity for a concession over 0.7ha, or 1 per cent, of Kaituna Reserve for more than two years and three months.
The Kaituna hydro station would save 33,000 tonnes of carbon emissions each year and renewably power 10,000 households, Dr Smith said.
Conservation Minister Chris Carter said the project was complex and the site was next to land which had reserve status.
Dr Smith asked what Mr Carter meant when the minister told Parliament on December 5 last year that a decision was "very imminent".
Ten months had since passed and Bay of Plenty Electricity still did not have a decision.
Mr Carter said he guessed he had said the decision was nearly ready as he was an "optimistic sort of guy".
Dr Smith said this answer could not address the question.
"This process of questioning is about departmental accountability and I think the minister does have to be accountable for that sort of bureaucratic bungling by his department."
Mr Carter acknowledged his answer had been flippant, but reiterated that the project was more complicated than initially thought and said he could only operate within the law.
Earlier in question time, National MP Gerry Brownlee queried whether New Zealand was capable of meeting the target by 2025.
He pointed to figures in the energy strategy documents, which he said had been described as "Pollyanna-ish," and asked if the papers would face up to tough questions on New Zealand generating enough energy to become a world-class economy - "when the paper hardly considers economic growth, uses different figures for economic growth and demand growth in different places, and doesn't even mention GDP growth rates?"
Energy Minister David Parker said the growth forecasts were the same as those used by the Treasury.
He said New Zealand would be able to meet increased demand through its "abundant" renewable resources.
"Of course New Zealand should invest in efficiency to moderate increases in demand where this is cheaper than new generation."
Mr Brownlee said the estimates projected 1.3 per cent annual growth in demand, but historically, demand had grown at more than 2 per cent per year.
Mr Parker said the estimates came from the Electricity Commission, which had established that New Zealand electricity demand was not going to grow at 2 per cent per annum.
- NZPA
