Energy has become one of our defining political issues. Households are facing rising power costs, businesses are experiencing energy uncertainty, and major decisions about electrification, fossil fuels, energy security, resilience and affordability will shape our future for decades. We have no coherent vision for our energy future, no directional consensus, and no national energy strategy – we are a boat at sea in a storm, without a map, lighthouse or "north star" to guide us.
The irony is:
We have rising power prices when solutions are getting cheaper by the day.
Fuel prices are driven by international instability but we have abundant renewable energy and we could be paying kiwis for solar to power our electric cars.
Our electricity prices are set by overseas coal when we can generate what we need and have control in Aotearoa.
We have an incentive structure, with incumbent markets, rules and regulation built for the 1990s, that locks the energy industry into the status quo - limiting innovation while other countries and communities transform their energy systems.
Despite all our information technology, we the people, lack a voice on these issues, with no obvious way to participate in making our big energy decisions.
We have a once in a generation opportunity transform Aotearoa’s energy system, to lower costs, to create a more equitable system, that is more locally resilient for communities and businesses. This includes energy for warm healthy homes, for safe comfortable spaces to live and work in, for preparing kai, relaxing with whanau and friends, powering travel, transport and mobility.
The Assembly is an opportunity for for us to meet, discuss our aspirations, how we want to live and work, and how energy systems can help create the future we want. With billions of dollars being spent on solutions, we need to step back and ask, how do we want to design the world we live in.