Alternative energy plan

Press, 24 November 1980, Page 20

Alternative energy plan

Sir, — The Minister of Energy aspires to be Canute (“The Press,” November 13). The price of oil in 1990 will by nearer $BO than $4O. The average official O.P.E.C. price was $32.06 in September; it was $12.86 in December, 1978. The 1980 oil bill will represent 27 per cent of our export receipts; the 1990 bill, notwithstanding the energy plan, will represent 49 per cent of anticipated export receipts (if the oil price rises to $80). We are headed for bankruptcy. Dr Preddey’s answer is to eliminate almost all oil • imports by 1990, using locally produced condensate, Mobil gasoline, methanol (MB5 petrol, M9O diesel blends), CNG, LPG, electricity. Two new methanol plants would be necessary, and no export of petrolgas methanol. There are problems with this plan, but the constraints are political rather than technological, no matter what Mr Birch says. Isolated, with a small population, New Zealand’s future lies with alcohol fuels and low technology, not with ambitious dreams of lignite liquefaction. — Yours, etc., ERIC BENNETT. November 16, 1980.