Jonathan Paul: Greenland is rich in natural resources – a geologist explains why

Greenland, the largest island on Earth, possesses some of the richest stores of natural resources anywhere in the world.

These include critical raw materials – resources such as lithium and rare earth elements (REEs) that are essential for green technologies, but whose production and sustainability are highly sensitive – plus other valuable minerals and metals, and a huge volume of hydrocarbons including oil and gas.

Heather du Plessis-Allan: Labour can't hold on to the oil and gas ban forever

That was quite a smart move from Chris Luxon yesterday, calling on opposition parties to support the Government in fixing this energy crisis we’re in at the moment.

Not only because this is now so serious, with businesses closing down and cutting jobs because they can’t afford the power bill, that it really requires everyone in Parliament to be grown ups about it - but also because I think this is going to politically snooker Labour on that oil and gas ban.

Heather du Plessis-Allan: Our gas is running out faster than we ever thought it would

I'm starting to get a little bit nervous about whether we are ever going to be able to attract overseas investors back into our oil and gas industry.

I mean, you think about it - the world has known since October last year that we were back open for business, because that’s when the coalition Government won the election.

From there, it was clear that all three parties wanted to reverse the oil and gas ban. Since October, the world knew things were going to change in New Zealand.

Kerre Woodham: We live in comfort thanks to the earth's resources

In an ideal world, I would rather not dig up the ground and the sea bed to extract their resources. But we created certainly not an ideal world, but a comfortable world precisely because mankind learnt how to do that, to extract the riches from beneath the Earth's crust. Mankind's gone from living in a harsh and inhospitable environment to living in relative comfort thanks to the extraction of those aforementioned resources that give us light and warmth and convenience and communication, just about every modern technology needs oil or gas or minerals. Whether we like it or not the world needs to mine and drill.

NZCPR Weekly: A Lurch to the Left

Dear NZCPR Reader,   

This week we examine the impact of Winston Peters’ decision to form a coalition government with Labour and the Greens – and assess whether their policy agenda is causing the economic downturn he predicted, our NZCPR Guest Commentator Dr Bryce Edwards explains that the election of Marama Davidson as the Green Party co-leader signals a radical shift to the left, and our poll asks whether you think New Zealand First should have used their veto power to block the ban on oil and gas exploration.

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Frank Newman: Well-beings and oil wells

It's been a big week in politics. Last week saw the first reading in Parliament of the Local Government (Community Well-being) Amendment Bill. The purpose of the Bill is to reverse changes made to the Local Government Act in 2012 by the then National government.

The 2012 change redefined the purpose of local government as,

"(a) to enable democratic local decision-making and action by, and on behalf of, communities; and

(b) to meet the current and future needs of communities for good-quality local infrastructure, local public services, and performance of regulatory functions in a way that is most cost-effective for households and businesses."

Gerry Eckhoff: Representative Democracy

On the 14th of February 2014 the Chair of the Otago Regional Council (ORC) announced that representative democracy at the ORC was officially dead. Discussion on topical issues that impact on the Otago region must not be held in open debate.

Indeed the Chair had a legal opinion which was presented prior to the council meeting, to inform councillors that it would be “unlawful” for the council to debate a notice of motion supporting (in principle) the exploration for oil and gas off the Otago coast. This highly contestable legal opinion was swallowed whole by most councillors despite my assertion that we 12 councillors could all present a different legal opinion which was after all just that – someone’s opinion.

Frank Newman: Oil, gas, cheese and scones

This week I had the good fortune to spend a few days in New Plymouth. It’s a fairly long trip so I had plenty of time to contemplate what I would find on arrival. It’s an oil town, of course – right in the heart of the oil and gas fields on and off-shore Taranaki.

Being one who does listen to the news and therefore inescapably the spin coming out of the Green Party and its activist networks, I had expected to see oil rigs blotting the landscape and contaminated waterways and beaches. I didn’t. What I did see was a prosperous community doing well on the back of the oil industry.