Levi Gibbs

Published: November 2, 2023

Submitting To: Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE)

Issue for Business: This paper released by MBIE, outlines the issues and opportunities relating to the Gas Transition Plan. We recommend that the priorities underlying the GTP should include: 1. An enduring and bipartisan understanding about the important role of gas throughout the transition and the right policy settings to reflect this role. 2. Restore enough confidence to ensure investment in deliverability by ruling out further heavy-handed interventions and replacing existing decommissioning requirements that lock away capital needed for incremental drilling. c) Investigate routes on how CCS technology could be deployed sooner, while developing regulatory settings that enable and incentivise the use of CCS technology. d) Keep all options open. Regulatory interventions aimed at reducing emissions may limit optionality, i.e., a ban on new residential gas connections limits biogas and hydrogen, destroying option value. e) A joint-up approach is needed in the formulation of policy. The direction of ETS policy could determine a firms’ presence in New Zealand and its demand for gas. f) Clarify the role of renewable gases, including the actions required to enable biogas or hydrogen blending. g) Clarify the role, responsibilities and costs involved in the decommissioning of some existing gas infrastructure