Meridian is sticking to the letter of resource management law. It risks big power generation decisions being made, at big environmental cost, without full cost-benefit analysis
Read MoreConservation
Conservation land mining and the green genie
Mr Brownlee may have dug a big hole for the mining industry, by eyeing up Schedule 4. Conservationists' price: a better Schedule, and a higher test for mining access rights
Read MoreBillets doux for Gerry Brownlee
Turning the draft energy strategy upside down, to shake some ‘step change’ out of it
Read MoreFilthy rich: our developing energy strategy
Does this government’s ‘developing country’ shtick, or our luck in being small, give us the moral authority to dine richly on oil and coal?
Read MoreOn the horns of a dilemma: housing cows
The quashed ‘cubicle dairy’ consents and withdrawn applications were only the opening line of a much more difficult conversation: can you tell happy cows in a barn from sad ones in a so-called factory?
Read MoreOIA uncovers 2nd quango, trying to evade the Act
DOC papers released to me, under the OIA, show Meridian deleting key email to pre-empt its release, and slowing down DOC decision-making
Read MoreCrown pastoral land: LINZ explains everything
Land Information New Zealand is a bit of a misnomer: the information, when I asked them for it, seemed in short supply. But inadvertently, they explained quite a lot
Read MoreJust dirty, not sexy: lignite to liquid fuel
Coal-to-liquid fuel feasibility studies are underway for lignite, the dirtiest coal, as the coal industry tries to dig itself out of a hole
Read MoreGrass stains on the Mackenzie, part II: tenure review
In which policy makers try to grow the economic cake, but end up eating it instead, leaving us with some little brown crumbs …
Read MoreGrass stains on the Mackenzie, part I
Intensive farming development of the Mackenzie district is a failure of law and policy, and ecological disaster on a colonial scale
Read MoreVegetarianism as a Religion
Why do some vegetarians claim moral superiority over meat eaters?
Read MoreFollowing the footsteps of Monet and Monty
It’s time for tree planting, picture-painting, and the annual garden bird survey
Read MoreThe good oil, on two biofuel bills
New Zealand’s biofuel market is, apparently, a model of sustainability and transparency; it might be our route to fuel independence. Fitzsimons’ Bill to regulate it looks likely to be rejected
Read MoreBP slick exposes NZ safety gulf
The US government can barrel oil giant BP into stumping up $28 billion to clean up the mess created by its disastrous deep water oil drilling operation in the Gulf of Mexico – but could you see that happening here?
Of windmills, and those who mind
Would-be wind farmer Meridian Energy has a problem, its opponents have a point, and there’s an unanswered question that challenges us all
Read MoreDrill, baby, drill - The NZ Way
As the United States shuts down deepwater oil drilling to get it back under control, New Zealand opens the door. Gerry Brownlee may not get much more mining on the conservation estate, but he can get it off-shore. How good is that?
Read MoreThe International Court of Justice: another whales’ tale
Australia’s ICJ proceedings look like the latest high stakes manoeuvre in a diplomatic poker game with Japanese whalers
Read MoreIWC: stop whaling in-fighting, start protecting whales
Material for the International Whaling Commission’s next meeting, published on its website, answers some domestic questions and shifts the IWC focus from whaling to whales
Read MoreKate Wilkinson: Conservation’s lame blue duck?
Notes from Kate Wilkinson’s recent talk to a Christchurch tramping club raise real questions about the job she is doing as conservation minister
Read MoreUp the Hurunui without a paddle: Foreshore and Seabed Act, reprise
Extinguishment of Hurunui litigation rights recalls the Foreshore and Seabed Act, and it is breathing life into the embers of green activism
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