One of the first things the current Government did when it came to power was to announce its intention to replace the previous Government’s New Zealand Energy Strategy, which made some moves towards favouring renewable energy systems over the burning of fossil fuels, and the associated New Zealand Energy Efficiency and Conservation Strategy, which had strong Green Party input.

We have obtained what appears to be a draft copy of the current Government’s New Zealand Energy Strategy. The strategy has been watered down to a 40 page glossy booklet (1.6 MB PDF) that isn’t a long read:

NZ-Energy-Strategy-NZEECS-v12-21-March-11-1


Its top priority is to “Develop petroleum and mineral fuel resources”, ahead of other priorities like
2 Develop renewable energy resources
3 Embrace new energy technologies

While it’s been obvious that this has been the Government’s priority from the moment they came to power, they have now laid it out with a whole lot of pretty pictures to accompany it. It’s always helpful to know what you’re up against, and this document clearly shows it.