Last week MP Nick Smith wrote an opinion piece on fracking which featured in several newspapers. Now Green MP Gareth Hughes has written a rebuttal for the New Zealand Herald.
An excerpt (read in full here):
Gareth Hughes: Fracking not a sensible choice for NZ
Former Environment Minister Nick Smith needs to get his fracking facts right if he is to be taken seriously on the issue. His article ‘Fracking the sensible choice for NZ’ published in the NZ Herald and other papers across the country contains a serious misrepresentation.
In his article trying to ‘inject some science and common sense into the debate’ Smith has been caught out with his incorrect comment that ‘geothermal energy resources in the upper North Island that can be developed only with fracking’ and that the Greens were hypocritical campaigning for green jobs when our fracking stance would kill the geothermal industry.
He’s been rebuffed by a highly credible source. Brian White, the Executive Officer of the New Zealand Geothermal Association commented on Smith’s article online saying “We do not want the New Zealand geothermal industry to be misrepresented in this debate’ and ‘While certain similarities exist between drilling for oil and gas and drilling for geothermal resources, hydraulic fracturing is NOT used in the New Zealand geothermal industry.’
It does Smith no credit to be misrepresenting facts to advance his Government’s pro-fracking agenda.
The fact that no fracking has been used in the New Zealand geothermal electricity sector has been long established. Fracking has been used overseas in a new geothermal process called Enhanced Geothermal Systems, (EGS) but EGS has never been used in New Zealand or by any New Zealand company.