This bill adopted by the Parliament was strongly criticized by environmental defense organizations.
The Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, Shane Jones, said that new laws would stimulate investment in exploring oil deposits and would help to alleviate energy supply problems during the winter.
“The prohibition of exploration of 2018, which was a failure, exacerbated the shortages of our national gas supply, destroying new investments,” the minister said in a statement, describing the climate change of “large hysteria”.
“Worse decision”
The offshore exploration ban was “the worst decision on energy and natural resources” in the history of the country, launched Shane Jones.
“We are not going (…) eroding the productivity of our economy by preventing access to fossil fuels,” he added, welcoming that the era of this “heresy” was over.
In 2018, center-left Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said he wanted to “attack climate change and create a clean, green and sustainable future for New Zealand”.
“Archaic”
The text, which the government wanted to pass at the end of 2024 but whose adoption had been delayed several times, was voted with 68 votes to, against 54. All the opposition parties rejected it. Steve Abel, deputy for the Green Party, criticized an “archaic” government.
“It is extraordinary that we are there, years later, to return to gas and oil prospecting after our nation was greeted worldwide for its vision,” he said.
New Zealand has long promoted an image of champion in environmental matters, highlighting its hilly pastures, its intact tropical forests and its clear waters.
Jacinda Ardern, who led the country from 2017 to 2023, had formed a coalition with the Greens and alerted to “climate emergency”. Since its mandate, energy prices have increased by more than 10%, even if electricity consumption has dropped.
Risks of power cuts
Transpower, the public company which manages the electricity network, alerted in May to increased risks of power cuts this winter due to a limited energy supply.
Solar and wind energy does not deploy quickly enough to counter the drop in gas supply, according to the company.
The government admitted that it would probably take a decade before the new offshore explorations are translated into an increased supply of gas and oil.
In 2018, Shane Jones was minister in the Ardern cabinet and himself voted for the offshore prospecting ban.
He recently described the former Prime Minister of “Fugitive Politics” who left the country to teach at the American University of Harvard.
