New Zealand’s gas industry under pressure

We replaced our low pressure hot water tank with a gas instant hot water system, and picked the greenest option. I would be loathe to swap back to electricity. Our house is unsuitable for solar fit-out, so all our energy would be electric. Where does the government think the extra electricity generation is going to come from? People shower when it's dark and also use heating when it's dark (no solar available). Wind and tide options don't deliver guaranteed supply.

If the government is seriously concerned about fossil fuel use, then push to get a lot of trucks off the road and invest in rail. That will do more to help NZ's fossil fuel use than to penalise people with gas connections.

We moved from northland to taranaki 3 months ago..the property we bought has a cooktop on bottled gas and gas hotwater. The power bill is 70 to 80 dollars less per month and that is during the summer months...we would be very reluctant to change to electric hobtop and hot water cylinder

The New Zealand government appears to be quite consistent in its approach to getting us to do stuff, and most of the time uses a boot. It would be good if they took the approach that the UK has and give out subsisdes with the boot to encourage us to switch from Gas to Electricity. We have solar, and the main use is to power the car. Our heating, hot water and hob are all gas, and to switch just the ducted gas heating to a heat pump would cost in excess of $16,000 and would require replacing all of the ducting. We haven't yet looked at changing over the water heater, but imagine that will be thousands too. The UK government are handing out the equivalent of $10,000 grants to switch, and that would go a long way to funding us to switch from gas to electric.

UNFORTUNATELY OUR GOVT HAS IT'S HEAD IN THE SAND AS FAR AS ENERGY IS CONCERNED. NZ MAKES UP .2% OF GLOBAL POLUTION. THE ONLY REASON FOR THE EXISTANCE OF THE GREEN PARTY IS TO DISTRIBUTE PROPAGANDA AND CONVINCE PEOPLE WITH LOW IQ,s OF THE DOOM AND GLOOM OF PENDING DISASTERS.
PUTTING UP THE COST ON ALL FORMS OF FUEL ONLY RAISES THE TAXES AND INCREASES INFLATION AND POVERTY BUT THE GOVT IS HELL BENT ON DESTROYING THE NZ ECONOMY.

While gas is still being used to produced electricity it seems more efficient to use gas in my house for cooking, water heating and space heating. The loss of the energy in gas when it is used to produce electricity and also in the transmission power lines means it doesn't make sense for me to convert to all electric. If electricity was 100% renewable I would be more inclined to shift, but currently in-house use of gas seems better for the environment.

To reduce our footprint and to avoid the excessive $50 per month fixed minimum charge, we changed our water heating, some house heating and stove top from reticulated gas to solar/grid electricity and bottled gas. When we purchased a second hand electric car our costs and carbon use significantly reduced even more. After 1 year we have paid half for our electricity, $40 in total for our bottled gas, and travelled 13,000 km with zero emissions and practically zero cost cf petrol. Saving at least $50 per week as well as the emission reductions.
Of course there are setup costs but all those that can afford a new car, at $35,000, could afford to do what we did. They would not only reduce their footprint but they would significantly recoup their costs, which a new car purchase would certainly not allow them to do!

I'd like to see more discussion on alternatives (electricity, solar, stored solar heated hot water etc) If mains electricity is to be the solution then there needs to be a meaningful discussion of cost, evironmental and aesthetic as well as $, of power generation. Every source of energy has its downsides and these issues need to be debated earlier in the process.

We use bottled gas for our hob. It’s very quick and responsive, cf electricity.

What concerns me more is that Chinese dirty coal is being imported and used. If coal must be used (and it appears necessary, just now) why not use cleaner coal from the many mines on the West Coast? Not only is Chinese coal dirty coal, but Chinese coal wastes even more resources by needing to be freighted a long way.

It is misleading to label natural gas a 'dreaded fossil fuel'
Methane C H4 is more like hydrogen. It burns to produce 2 molecules of water and one of Carbon dioxide. If we replace all our diesel and coal use with Natural gas we wont have a carbon emissions problem. This is happening a lot in the North of our planet.

and I am amazed people can't see this. The Greens have essentially blocked further power stations so we are in a sort of dreamland happily converting to electricity when those of us who can remember power cuts look on with alarm. Governments of the 1960s learnt quickly that sudden loss of electricity at 5pm infuriated voters and that situation still holds true. EV charging or cooking a meal, you choose.

Gas may be a fossil fuel but it is much cleaner than coal. It should have a large role for a least the next 20 years. Phase out of carbon should be concentrated on coal plants and in the transport industry via congestion charging rather than households with a gas appliance that will be good for another 20+ year

Gas is a fossil fuel, the burning of which is destroying the planet. In New Zealand, with 80% renewable energy, it's a no-brainer to move away from gas to electric. We purchased our first home last year, which has gas hot water, and are beginning the process to electrify our hot water.

With the recent break in electricity supply in the Waikato I am not convinced that relying on one form of power, if you have a choice, is a good idea. I also think that the demise of gas is premature. It is needed to transition to green alternatives. I believe we are in danger of getting power supply seriously wrong and I think we are likely to have less security of supply in the future. Something that is worrying Australians now with the early closing of their largest coal fired power plant at Eraring. Not too much to worry about here in New Zealand though?

We are building and the gas option compared to the full electric heat pump option after fit out costs was less expensive. With uncertainty on future of gas it was a no brainer for us.