Energy paper rejected

Press, 19 February 1983, Page 7

Energy paper rejected

PA Auckland An American energy .consultant, Mr Pincas Jawetz, says he was refused permission to present a paper to an international alcohol fuel technology . symposium in Auckland last May. But a symposium organiser, Professor Alan Titchener of Auckland University, said the paper was rejected mainly because .material in it was already well known to delegates. Mr Jawetz, who 'is critical of the Motunui gas-to-gasoline project, said that an expanded version of the paper was later written into the records of a European Community conference in Berlin, and published in London.

Mr Jawetz said: "One could argue that my known analytical approach caused some (New Zealand) officials

to be.instrumental in keeping my views away from the public.” Professor Titchener said the organising committee was swamped with applications to present papers at the conference. The selection committee had to reduce the numbersand Mr Jawetz was “one of the unfortunate ones.” Mr Jawetz had already presented similar papers in other conferences and there was “not a great deal of new material.”

“People in the field already knew the material and there were other original papers we could have used.” Papers were also chosen with the help of international experts from other countries who were on the organising committee, said Professor Titchener. Mr Jawetz has said New Zealand would save close to $1 billion by halting the Motunui project at the methanol stage and abandoning the plans to upgrade the Marsden Point refinery.