Kerre Woodham: Time is running out for businesses that run on gas

Time is running out for the businesses that generate billions of dollars worth of GDP and that employ a quarter of a million New Zealanders.

They're the businesses that run on gas. Your bakers, your coffee roasters, your wineries, your wood processors, your ag sec. And that's not counting the schools and hospitals dependent on gas to heat their buildings.

Time is running out because the gas they operate on is running out. It's a finite resource. And as yet, they haven't found anything to replace it.

David Dempsey, Jannik Haas, Rebecca Peer: NZ is running out of gas.....

NZ is running out of gas – literally. That’s good for the climate, but it’s bad news for the economy

The coalition government recently announced its plan to reverse a ban on new oil and gas exploration to deal with an energy security challenge brought on by rapidly declining natural gas reserves.

But this assumes, rather optimistically, that repealing the ban will prompt companies to invest in new gas fields.