New Zealand Celsias

 Phil Heatley , the current Minister of Energy and resources seems to have two stock phrases for opponents of fracking. Initially his technique was to repeated dismiss them as "extreme greenies", but that became slightly problematic for him when Council after Council expressed its opposition and they were clearly not by anyones count, "extreme greenies".

So he's developed a new line.

Now its about revenue. Ramping up oil and gas exploration will boost the Government's revenues by million so we can support hospitals and schools. Watch how many times hospitals and schools are used in the statements that he makes on fracking.

But the opposition, very clear in Canterbury has now surfaced in the Hawkes Bay 



Mr Heatley has said the Government was looking to increase exploration of oil and gas reserves in other parts of the country following the success of the industry in Taranaki, where it had created about 3000 jobs.


"If Taranaki, over all these years can environmentally and in a safety-conscious way have a big oil industry sitting neatly beside dairy and tourism, there's no reason why other regions can't do that," he said.

The North Island's East Coast and South Island's West Coast are areas of interest.



Mr Heatley also said he had "no concerns" about hydraulic fracturing, known as fracking, where water, sand and chemicals are blasted into the ground to extract gas or petroleum.


Greg Hart, a Central Hawke's Bay farmer, and one of those against fracking, said in  Hawke's Bay Today that Mr Heatley's comments showed again that for the Government it is "short-term thinking," and it is "all about money."

"Our true wealth in this world is the good land, not the dollars that are being printed by the trillion around the World," he said.

"They just can't see past the money."

"Yes, we do have to have an economy," he said, "but we do have to bring it back within nature's boundaries, to honour the people of the future. There are alternatives."

Photo of fracking opposition: courtesy of manu.org.nz