Contribution to Government's Policies and Objectives
As stated above, the proposed Marsden B Power Station Re-powering Project is aligned with one of the government's key energy outcomes; to improve electricity security of supply.
Note that it is not the government's role to decide which forms of generation should proceed or to choose between generation proposals. If a generation proposal can sufficiently mitigate its environmental effects, then the decision of whether or not to proceed will come down to commercial considerations.
Sustainable Development Programme of Action for Energy
The Sustainable Development Programme of Action is one of the Government's major over arching documents designed to guide and underpin policy development. Energy has been identified as one of the target areas for sustainable development because of its correlation to economic growth, potential environmental impact, and because both consumers and businesses are heavily reliant on its supply.
In Sustainable Energy: Creating a Sustainable Energy System, which was released on 27 October 2004 and sets out a policy framework within which energy choices can be considered going forward, the government identified the key properties of a sustainable energy system as being:
- reliable and resilient;
- environmentally responsible; and
- efficiently and fairly priced.
The government considers that the objective of environmental responsibility is addressed for local environmental impacts through the Resource Management Act obligation to avoid, remedy or mitigate, and for global climate change impacts through the government's national climate change policies which are described in more detail below.
The objective of efficient and fair pricing is progressed through creation and promotion of open markets for energy services.
This submission primarily provides information on the first objective, a reliable and resilient energy system, and the Ministry of Economic Development's assessment of the Marsden B Power Station Re-powering Project's potential contribution to this objective. A major objective of the programme of action for energy is to ensure that New Zealand consumers have a secure supply of electricity.
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