Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Ryan Bridge: Electricity Crisis - It feels like we're fumbling around in the dark

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Ryan Bridge: Electricity Crisis - It feels like we're fumbling around in the dark · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: The power was cut to my place last night. Don't worry.
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: It was expected. It was a maintenance thing. From one
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: in the morning or midnight through till five am. The
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: heating was off. It was chilly. I think it was
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: six degrees in Auckland last night. Not as bad as
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: you zero in christ Church, granted, but boy does it
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: make you think how important electricity is. You don't know
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: what you've got till it's gone. You wake up, you know, freezing,
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: you've got fripples, you've got a cold foot hanging out
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: the bed, you're fumbling around in your undies trying trying
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: to find undies because it's dark. You know, it's quite
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: important to have electricity, right, and you don't know how
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: good it is till it's gone. So too for major
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: key industries who are feeling the cold, hard reality at
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: the moment of life without energy, without gas. There are
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: two stories in the last couple of days that caught
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: my attention. One was methin X, which produces methanol. They've
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: got two hundred and seventy staff. Six hundred and forty
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: million dollars is what they're worth to the Taranaki economy.
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: More close to a billion to the national economy, eight
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: percent of Tartanaki's GDP. And they are reviewing operations in
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: New Zealand. They're running at half capacity. Why a lack
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: of gas, dwindling supply from existing gas fields. The spot
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: market is shooting up going through the roof. Wholesale prices
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: are up. You can't get a contract. The business is
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: the equivalent of stumbling around in the dark. At the moment,
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: there's no certainty. They can't get affordable contracts, so business
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: is suffering. The other story, the largest employer in Rupaehu
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: District two hundred and fifty people employed at this poulp
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: mill and sawmill. They've paused their operations. Why Energy costs
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: up six hundred percent since twenty twenty one. There's a
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: fourteen day pause going on there while they consider their future.
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: This is not good. Some are talking about a manufacturing exodus.
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: This is what we're seeing. It will hurt small town
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: New Zealand. And these are good jobs. Therese are jobs
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: that feed families. Is this a surprise? No. Twenty eighteen
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: MB rang the alarm bells about the government's oil and
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: gas ban quite loudly, I might add, and I'll just
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: read you a little bit from what was written at
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: the time in twenty eighteen. This is a briefing paper
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment given to
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: then Energy Minister Megan Woods. It said METHODEX would not
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: be able to operate at full capacity from twenty twenty
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: one and would stop completely after twenty twenty six. Method
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: X will require a new discovery if it is to
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: continue operating in New Zealand over the medium to long term.
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: So we had the warning. Now it is happening, and
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: the government promised a just transition at the time. Where
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: is that? Show me the jobs to replace the potentially
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: hundreds that are on the line right now feels a
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: little bit like we're fumbling around in the dark. For
• 3:11
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• 3:14
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• 3:17
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