The Dominion Post newspaper today quotes Todd Energy's submission to the Parliamentary finance and expenditure select committee as saying the Emissions Trading Scheme Bill, which includes a 10-year ban on baseload power stations run on gas or coal, is "very poor government process".
The bill's content "owes more to politics than common sense," Todd's submission says.
New Zealand uses about 150-170PJ of gas per year.
According to Todd, there are enough known gas reserves to last until at least 2020 and perhaps 2030 if the "considerable upside potential" - of about 1600 petajoules - of existing gas fields is realised.
So there are no grounds for the Government to assume that wholesale gas prices will increase by up to 50%, to about $NZ9 ($A7.90) per Gigajoule, Todd argued.
Todd says the ban is not justified on a proper cost-benefit analysis, is inconsistent with trying to encourage more exploration for oil and gas, and is not needed to promote renewable energy, which already supplies up to 70% of the country's power.
The ban, imposed in November, is an "unwarranted and imprudent intervention in the marketplace which will create unnecessary costs and potentially high-regret outcomes", says Todd, which holds stakes in the offshore Taranaki Maui and Pohokura, and the onshore Kapuni and Mangahewa gas fields, plus the offshore Maari and onshore McKee oil fields.
The Government intends imposing the ban to ensure it reaches its target of 90% of electricity from renewable sources by 2025. All new baseload gas power stations over 10MW are to be banned, except those replacing existing plant or necessary to ensure security of electricity supply.
However, peaking gas-fired stations are still being planned.
Contact Energy, 51.4% owned by Origin Energy, is planning a staged development of up to 300MW of gas-fired peaking plant at Taranaki Combined Cycle (TCC) site at Stratford to replace the mothballed New Plymouth power station.
New Zealand's other big gas-fired generator, Genesis Energy, is pressing ahead with plans for a similar staged development north of Auckland, given effective Court of Appeal clearance last December for it to continue with resource consent applications for Rodney.
