Posts by Idiot Savant
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Kyle: they were pricing on the need to upgrade the Cook Strait Cable. Transpower is doing that already, so they just need a big line to get the power from manapouri (or Invercargill) north. And that's the cheap part of the deal.
And Rio Tinto's special pleading is even more obnoxious when you consider that they're already goign to be getting a free ride courtesy of the NZ taxpayer, with a fat wodge of carbon credits to compensate them for higher power prices. Really, one of their competitors should take us to the WTO over such a blatant subsidy.
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Rich: yes. Those threatening "carbon leakage" are also displaying an attitude of deep denial on political action against climate change as well. Sure, you can move elsewhere. But it will do you no good, as one way or another, you will be paying for that carbon in ten years' time.
Rio Tinto is also incorrect when they say we'll be the "first in the world" to impose carbon costs. The EU has been emissions trading for a few years now (they've almost worked the bugs out), so aluminium smelters over there are already paying for the carbon in their electricity.
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To me, an interesting story would be why a respectable NZ journalist considers that such activity is "unsurprising" and writes of it with no tone of condemnation.
Or why they seem to think that retailers should engage in widespread surveillance of people's purchasing habits on behalf of the police.
I mean, isn't that just a little totalitarian?
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Fuck 'em.
I agree. And having dug some more into it, there's an economic case.
A few years ago Comalco threw another tanty as part of its "negotiations" with meridian for electricity supply. As part of that, it produced a report which estimated the benefits of the smelter at NZ$121 million per year. This includes company taxes, wages, and deferred investment in the electricity network (having our second-largest power station tied up only being able to send power to Invercargill apparently being a benefit to society).
Tiwai Point uses around 15% of our electricity. This is more than the amount we generate from coal (12.2% in 2006). So by removing Tiwai Point and building some new grid assets, we could stop burning coal entirely.
In 2006, Huntly (the only coal-fired power plant) was responsible for 4.671 MT of CO2 (New Zealand Energy Greenhouse Emissions 1990 - 2006). At a price of $25/ton, that works out to $116.8 million a year. So, it's looking pretty marginal already. Factor in rising carbon prices, and you don't have to go far before Tiwai Point is a net drain on our economy.
(And remember, the cost of grid upgrades is included in Comalco's "benefits" - so the moment emissions costs look higher than Comalco's figures of $121 million a year - as they would be if carbon prices rose to $30/ton or if I'd used 2005 emissions figures for coal - then we should shut it down and build some wires. Some of which I should add we are now building anyway).
Hoist by their own petard.
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giovanni: don't say that, or we'll have Jim Anderton trying to ban gnocchi as drug paraphanalia...
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I can't fathom how he won.
Because he was on the other team from Gordon Brown. Simple, really.
Though the fact that Red Ken was actually pursuing a left-wing agenda in London made it far more difficult for Boris than his party-mates had it in the rest of the country.
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Congrats again.
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Somehow - goodness knows how - I managed 702,567 km
Wow. That's almost further than the moon. Enoch Brown will be most impressed.
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Kicked a migrant 1041km
Damn, I could only get 567.
It's a subversive little game, and we need an NZ version to annoy Winston.
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I think the answer is to close Huntly, not Tiwai
According to the government's latest figures, closing Huntly would pretty much deal with our Kyoto liability.
Unfortunately they'll have no financial incentive to dothat (or switch it to gas) until 2010.