Sneakin' 'em through

How Tag oil drills the public (hat-tip Charlie)

“The RMA allows Councils to defer considering a consent application until all consents required for the proposal are received. It is best practice for all required consents for an activity to be identified from the outset, applied for contemporaneously and considered together. This ensures that all environmental effects can be taken into account in deciding whether consents should be granted.

“If the applicants are allowed to apply for resource consents incrementally this can mean that later consents are granted based on the baseline created by the earlier consent. This is a piecemeal approach.

“By splitting things up like this, the applicants are effectively gaming the system to make it easier for them to get consent for exploration drilling.

“We are concerned that this practice seems be spreading with oil exploration companies adopting the same approach elsewhere in the country."

Tom Belford alerts Councillors and ratepayers of what to watch out for when drillers come t0 your town.

Mr Pfahlert responds

When you are a big-wig in the oil industry, you've no need to answer a letter through the 'letters to the editor' column with its 250-word restriction - you can claim the whole of the EDITORIAL/OPINION block to get around it!
Mr Pfahlert, Petroleum Exploration and Production Association executive officer opened today's Southland Times opinion piece with,

"Environment Southland councillor Robert Guyton has asked what drilling companies would do in the event of a serious spill."

To his great credit, Mr Pfahlert then launches into a detailed description of a range of contingency plans he hopes would address a serious spill should it occur off the coast of Southland. He cites 'international support', the use of oil dispersants, booms and skimmers, a wildlife response unit and 'well-capping technology' that must necessarily be sited overseas. Each of his points are highly contestable and I'm compiling a response that addresses those but most striking to the casual reader would be a counter to Mr Pfahlert's analogy of the air crash. He says,

"By way of analogy, we don't design planes to protect passengers when they crash, They are designed for the purpose of flying, yet people who fly understand that the consequences of an air crash are often fatal. "

Goodness! There's so much to play with there! I'm thinking immediately of those who choose not to fly and wondering about Southlanders who choose not to have oil rigs off shore of their beaches. Mr Pfahlert's analogy doesn't work so well there! There's the whole insurance issue as well. Airlines, you'd imagine, compensate the families of those killed in air-crashes? Will the oil industry cover all the damage that results from a spill? Car manufacturers provide an analogy too, with their designed-for-a-crash vehicles, shock-absorbing chassis, air-bags, side-strengthening etc. And of course, travellers can go by bicycle or even, perish the thought, walk.
I think Mr Pfahlert chose a poor analogy in his falling-from-the-sky passenger jet.
Still, I mustn't be churlish. I was very gracious of Mr Pfahlert to respond to my questioning so comprehensively.
I expect he'll get some response via the 'letters' column.
Perhaps you, gentle reader, might be moved to put pen to paper.
Later today, I'll transcribe the article here, or perhaps lift Kylie's scanned copy. Sadly, the Southland Times doesn't put it's Opinion pieces on line any more.

It's a free-for-oil!

Petrobras of Brazil was awarded an exploration permit two months ago off the East Coast without any environmental scrutiny, says Labour's Environment Spokesperson Charles Chauvel.
Charles has been reading through the reports obtained by Radio New Zealand under the Official Information Act that show that our government is playing roulette with our environment.
Any Southlander who cares for the coastline, the waters of Foveaux Strait and beyond, the fish and mammals that swim there and the muttonbirds that visit every year, should be deeply concerned at this political lack of care.
Charles Chauvel, despite the record of his own party when they were governing us, is saying,

"The Government must change the law in this area to put safety and environmental considerations to the fore."
and that " "National has no plan to protect the environment."

Time to call them to account.