Will the NZ taxpayer subsidise Solid Energy's climate vandalism?

Solid Energy’s lignite proposals will be a disaster for the climate, Green Party Co-Leader Dr Russel Norman said today.

State owned enterprise Solid Energy today announced it intends turning vast quantities of lignite in Southland into liquid fuel and higher grade coal with Ignite Energy Resources.

Solid Energy is also looking to turn lignite into briquettes with GTL Energy and lignite into fertiliser with Ravensdown.

“Solid Energy’s proposal if successful could release vastly more greenhouse emissions than all of New Zealand currently releases,” said Dr Norman.

“Will Solid Energy pay the full cost for the carbon emissions from their proposals or will they be subsidised by the Key Government under the free allocations given out under the Emission Trading Scheme.”

The Emission Trading Scheme legislation provides for the Minister for Climate Change Issues Dr Nick Smith to keep secret information about which companies receive taxpayer largesse to subsidise pollution, under the guise of protecting commercial confidentiality.

“Solid Energy seems intent on finding multiple paths to release the massive quantities of carbon stored in Southland's lignite and hence undermine climate stability.

“Dr Smith needs to tell New Zealanders how much of this environmental vandalism will be subsidised by their taxpayers dollars.

Dr Norman considers that Solid Energy is green-washing lignite by calling it ‘ancient biomass’.

“It is true that coal and oil are ancient biomass, but they are also enormous stored carbon which released into the atmosphere will accelerate climate change,” said Dr Norman.


Note: The Ministry of Economic Development Energy Data File says there are around six billion tonnes of lignite potentially available. Each tonne produces 1.52 tonne CO2 equivalent = 9.1 billion tonnes CO2e. New Zealand’s annual greenhouse emissions are currently around 75 million tones CO2e.