Pretty damning that the Refining Manager of the now closed Marsden Point Oil Refinery is going on radio going "WE NEED TO TRANSITION OFF FOSSIL FUELS" and calling our strategy MAGA and 1980s.
www.rnz.co.nz/news/politic...
People acting rationally, even when governments won’t:
www.rnz.co.nz/news/busines...
Former operator of Marsden Pt refinery is obviously correct:
How it’s playing in France. 🤡
It makes zero logical sense to require speed limiters on e-scooters & e-bikes but not SUVs that weigh 100x more.
Useful research here.
findingspress.org/article/1587...
Without money this is not a City Deal, is just a wish list, and a not very ambitious and loosely worded one at that:
Is San Francisco the only major US city to successfully keep highways out of the city centre? The only place where people power beat back the interstates? Like Vancouver?
youtu.be/MkyEhPIuW_w?...
This is so applicable in NZ too, the energy transition is the biggest missed opportunity in NZ economics:
Amazing to me that that this is treated like a surprise. Even more amazing that governments and officials (yes you MBIE) have been so resistant to taking the only real action that would fix this structurally - financing to accelerate switch to home grown electricity: www.rnz.co.nz/news/nationa...
The New Tobacco: “Cities across the world are clearing their billboards of flight ads, SUVs, cruise ships and petrol cars in an attempt to cut emissions.” Via the BBC. #UrbanTruth www.bbc.com/future/artic...
The only line that matters in this whole piece:
“The Government could get them [electric trucks] rapidly adopted simply by offering soft finance – comparatively little money for the gain in fuel security.”
Same is true for better PT, EV, + E-bike financing/funding
“…like a National guitar”
Not only does this mean not needing to import fossil fuels , it even reduces the need to expand the grid. Win win win win. What prudent government wouldn’t facilitate this?
Real resilience and energy security:
Posted without comment, via
www.greaterauckland.org.nz/2026/03/12/c...
It's inevitable that voters are not informed about a host of issues.
It's inexcusable that they elect someone both stupider and less curious than they are.
"Achieving the UK’s net zero target by 2050 will cost less than a single oil shock and bring health and economic benefits while insulating the country against future costs, the government’s climate advisers have forecast."
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
Be good to see plans too…
And the Climate Emergency Responses Fund CERF, which was using carbon taxes to fund the transition. An efficient, effective, and elegant “polluter pays” method to accelerate our energy independence. They instead used these funds for landlord tax breaks. The reverse of wise governance.
who could have known that the Ponzi scheme of low taxes and delayed infrastructure maintain would one day have to be paid for?
True in city infrastructure, true for climate change.
4/ New study from my @nzpolicylab.bsky.social lab: @davidfickling.bsky.social covers our report on Chinese overseas green manufacturing FDI. We spent the summer painstakingly coding every single chinese green factory across the world. The results are striking:
bloomberg.com/opinion/arti...
So far the war on Iran has cost $9.4 billion.
That's $1 billion per day.
$41,666,667 per hour.
$11,574 per second.
Thousands of lives lost.
People don't want this. They want a living wage. They want healthcare. They want to be able to afford a home. They want their basic needs met.
Fun ad from the 70s
"Iran war shows Green Deal ‘fundamental’ to #EU security, says new top environment MEP"
www.politico.eu/article/eu-g...
The solution is obviously fund public health to a level it requires
Paying private companies to do the same work is (1) just privatization by the back door and (2) going to cost more
None of that is better for us as a country
#nzpol
www.rnz.co.nz/news/busines...
If only there was a fast-scaling source of energy that can power cars without oil, is by nature distributed and doesn't need to be imported over and over again every time you want it...
"The world is caught again in the bloody tangle of war, fossil fuels and climate change. There are so many layers that we can only begin to tease them apart."
Recommended read from @chrishatch.bsky.social
www.nationalobserver.com/2026/03/09/o...
