A Climate Change Commission suggestion that new homes should not connect to the gas network was rejected by the industry. Photo: 123RF
The New Zealand gas industry went to an international fossil fuel forum and claimed responsibility for killing off a proposed government ban on new gas connections.
Gas NZ presented its success as a model for avoiding regulation for others in the fossil gas industry.
The body's presentation to the World LPG Association says it achieved its goal of stopping what it called the "existential threat" posed by a draft suggestion from the Climate Change Commission that new homes should not connect to the gas network to avoid locking their owners in to rising energy bills.
"The immediate challenge was having the sections recommending an end-date for connections removed from the draft advice," said the presentation.
It said it avoided the ban by using a mix of public advertising to rouse support for gas, and discussions with Ministers and officials to help craft its message.
The strategy outlined in the document was to present the government with an alternative to a ban, in the form of a renewable gas mandate.
The proposed mandate would require gas companies to gradually include some cleaner methane gas from landfills and other sources along with their supplies of fossil fuel gas.
To have the same climate benefit as a ban on new connections, 20 percent of the LPG market would need to be renewable by 2035 and at least 70 percent by 2050, according to Gas NZ's presentation.
But although the ban never proceeded, there was also no mandate to increase renewable gas use.
Gas NZ declined an interview, but sent a statement saying it represented all kinds of gas and was particularly focussed on the role biogas, hydrogen, and renewable liquid gas could play in New Zealand's future.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said the gas industry had overstated how much lobbying power it had.
The long-held views held by New Zealand political parties about the issues were already well known, he said.
"We've had a long-standing position in opposition - as you know - about gas in general, and particularly about new connections.
"And you would have seen [that] with the Labour government as well, they also didn't take up the Climate Change Commission's advice on that either."
The draft ban that died
The Climate Change Commission floated the idea in 2021 of banning new connections to the gas pipeline network after 2025, in a draft advice document, prompting an outcry from gasfitters and pipeline owners.
Gas bottles like the ones that fuel barbecues would not have been touched, and households with existing gas pipes would have been able to keep them connected.
A modified version of the draft recommendation made it into the commission's final advice to the government, but without any deadline to take effect.
Gas NZ told other gas companies the government's subsequent Emissions Reduction Plan excluded any ban after its successful campaigning.
From this year, new gas connections are banned in new homes and government buildings built in the Australian state of Victoria, with the state's environment chief telling media it made no sense to keep connecting homes to gas when gas prices would keep rising, while renewable electricity got cheaper.
Australian doctors welcomed the move, because of the link between indoor gas stoves and asthma.
Gas and "hydrogen-ready" boilers are also in line to be banned from newly-built homes in England from 2025.
In New Zealand, trials are underway to supply homes with biomethane blends, such as foodwaste breaking down and creating methane gas.
The Climate Commission expects gas to be a part of the energy mix until 2050, in declining quantities.
An economic modelling report for the government concluded fossil gas prices would rise significantly in the next decade and beyond, while most sources of green or renewable gases would be more expensive than fossil gas.
Government officials concluded small quantities of biogas - such as gas from landfills - are likely to be affordable, but producing larger volumes likely would not be economic for larger gas users.
A consultation paper released by the government and the Gas Industry Company (GIC, the gas industry-owned co-regulator) last year said biomethane could help lower the emissions from gas, but would come at a premium price.
Households installing new gas connections today face costs to disconnect those and replace their appliances if they later decide that gas is too expensive to keep buying.
Multiple reports have concluded electrification is cheaper for new homes than installing gas and increasingly cheaper for many existing homes also looking to replace their appliances.
Campaign highlighted by anti-fossil advertising lobby group
The Future Sure campaign for Gas NZ was highlighted by a group of advertising, PR and media professionals who are trying to get agencies to swear off fossil fuel clients.
Newly-formed climate lobby group Comms Declare said Gas NZ "bragged about how it reversed a recommendation by the New Zealand Climate Change Commission to halt new gas connections by 2025 with the help of the Future Sure brand".
AUT marketing lecturer Matt Halliday said the campaigns' method "seemed very similar to what the other fossil fuel companies are doing, which is saying, 'we are part of the solution', but pushing back very hard against any attempt at trying to reduce emissions".
'Outages expected'
One of the selling points in Gas NZ's ad campaign was that "customers could continue to count on gas".
But internal documents released under the Official Information Act earlier this year showed GIC suggested to government officials that gas field outages were expected and the only question was when.
The comments were made in tracked changes feedback on a draft issues paper prepared by officials for the previous Government's Gas Transition Plan.
In response to a draft statement by officials that "we need to recognise the possibility of unexpected disruptions to the gas supply, like the Pohokura outages that occurred in 2018", GIC commented: "Field outages are expected, including unplanned ones, we just don't know when....The issue for the Pohokura outages is that electricity suppliers didn't invest in back up fuel."
GIC told officials that major gas users now had better backup plans for outages than they did during the Pohokura failure.
Officials wrote in the same draft issues paper that "biogas will likely continue to be more expensive than fossil gas, and the pipelines may become uneconomic to maintain" and that biogas blending would be an option for "consumers willing to pay a premium".
Other notes from GIC on the draft show GIC sought to have this wording deleted before the public release.
However the final paper released to the public kept some slightly modified wording, saying biogas would come at a "small premium" and there was a "risk of sections of pipeline" becoming uneconomic to maintain, as prices rose and more customers switched away from gas, leaving fewer residential customers to pay for pipe upkeep.
Asked about its campaign's message about the reliability of the gas supply, Gas NZ said the past winter had showed New Zealand did not have much spare energy capacity and that "we need new low-carbon energy sources to be in place before we stop using the existing ones".
It said there was enough gas for residential customers - and if supplies ran short it would be big industrial users that would have to stop using gas.
"It is true that New Zealand's natural gas fields are declining. If production continues to drop over the long term, big industrial users would be forced to stop using natural gas. This would in turn make even more natural gas available for household and small business use," Gas NZ said in its statement.
