Smelter remarks disclaimed

Press, 22 October 1980, Page 12

Smelter remarks disclaimed

PA Wellington The Ministry of Works has disclaimed remarks by one of its development scientists. Mr M. Ellis, who has strongly opposed ;.- the scheme for a second aluminium smelter on ;> a number of occasions in.

the last two months. The Coalition for Open Government has released another paper from Mr Ellis, which it said proved that electricity planners had made significant mistakes in power planning. In a .statement, the Commissioner of Works, (Mr' FT. C. McLeod) said he was concerned that statements attributed to

Mr Ellis continued to appear in newspapers. “It is true Mr Ellis, in his private capacity, several months ago circulated a paper expressing his assessment of the economics of a second smelter, and the information he drew from was all publicly available,” Mr McLeod said. The paper was then presented to a University of Waikato seminar and a Planning Tribunal hearing in Queenstown, where Mr Ellis gave evidence on the Clutha hydro project. “Mr Ellis attended these meetings in his own time and not at public expense.”

Mr McLeod said that since presenting his submissions in Queenstown. Mr Ellis had been overseas in the Pacific with a governmentsupported aid project. “Consequently, though his name has appeared in the press, he has had no further involvement in discussions on the smelter project. I think it is important to put the record straight, in fairness to Mr Ellis and to the department.” Mr McLeod said. Mr McLeod describes the two papers Mr Ellis presented as the same. Mr Ellis’s original paper entitled “Aluminium

Smelting — Solution or Problem?,” did not say who he worked for. In that paper he said the second smelter plans were "uneconomic by. a wide margin.” The paper presented in Queenstown does not say that Mr Ellis works for the Ministry, but oral evidence was given by Mr Ellis on his background.

In contrast to the first paper, the second paper takes a detailed look at the nature of the electricity surplus and the cost of electricity and its relation to plans to build more dams.