National's policy on Transport inconsistant with 2009 Ministerial Briefing on Oil Prices and Transport Sector Resilience & IEA reports

The Ministry of Economic Development's web-site states that publications from the International Energy Agency are "broadly recognised as world-leading authoritative sources of information and analysis on energy trends and forecasts, and research and development " and that "Credible information is of increasing importance for policy-makers because of a strong link between the energy sector, security and climate change."

As a member of the International Energy Agency, New Zealand contributes something in the region of NZ$125,000 per annum (see OIA release) to fund research and reports such as the 2009 Ministerial Briefing on Oil Prices and Transport Sector Resilience, (released under the Official Information Act,2010) upon which this government's transport strategy/ policy is (presumably) based.

As alluded to in the Ministerial Briefing (and in several interviews) the International Energy Agency has revised its earlier forecasts that peak oil wasn't expected until sometime after 2030 and is now telling us that, based on their 2008 study of 800 of the world's oil fields, that they estimate the peak in conventional oil passed in around 2006 and can now state conclusively that 'the age of cheap oil is over'.

The Ministerial Briefing on Oil Prices and Transport Sector Resilience outlines some of the vulnerabilities that New Zealand is subject to because of our high dependence on imported oil and on the relative inefficiency of our aging fleet (21)and our lack of modal choice (20) and concludes that New Zealand has 'relatively low resilience' to both increasing oil prices and oil price volatility.

New Zealand is currently burning through NZ$21 million dollars worth of imported oil every day, and that figure increased 22% over the 2010-2011 year to NZ$7.7 billion for that year.

The National-led Government's policy on provision of transport infrastructure ignores the 2009 Ministerial Briefing on Oil Prices and Transport Sector Resilience and advice from the International Energy Agency and is inappropriate to the future security of New Zealand.

New Zealand needs a transport strategy and policies which provide real resilience against the vulnerabilities inherent in the new 'post-peak oil' energy paradigm ,

=========================================================================================

Halt all work on proposed Roads of National Significance and redirect transport funding into :

• getting the Napier-Gisborne Railway line operational
• Auckland's inner city rail link
• building the Marsden Point Rail Link
• upgrading and extending the North Auckland Line and Dargaville Branch Line
• re-opening the Stratford-Okahukura Line

===========================================================================================

See also: http://thestandard.org.nz/brownlees-head-in-the-sand-looking-for-cheap-oil/ ( 4th of April 2012)

Use of IEA publications for policy development

Annual IEA publications, such as the World Energy Outlook and Energy Technology Perspectives, reinforce the importance of the IEA as New Zealand's primary international energy relationship.

These publications are broadly recognised as world-leading authoritative sources of information and analysis on energy trends and forecasts, and research and development.

Credible information is of increasing importance for policy makers because of a strong link between the energy sector, security and climate change.