Nick Smith
24 August, 2011
The Government today introduced legislation
to manage the environmental effects of activities
in New Zealand’s Exclusive Economic Zone
(EEZ) and Extended Continental Shelf (ECS)
and announced interim measures to manage
the environmental effects of activities
before the new law is passed.
“This legislation puts in place a robust
system of environmental controls for the
huge ocean and seabed area 20 times that
of New Zealand’s landmass that is currently
unregulated. This is about ensuring that
New Zealand is environmentally responsible
in taking up the significant economic opportunities
in our EEZ and ECS,” Environment Minister
Nick Smith said.
The Bill makes the new Environmental Protection
Authority (EPA) responsible for consenting,
monitoring and enforcement of activities
that impact on the environment like petroleum
exploration, seabed mining, deepwater aquaculture
and marine energy development. It requires
public consultation on regulations and consents
and enables activities to be classified
as permitted, discretionary or prohibited.
The new law is intended to come into effect
on 1 July 2012.
“The Government is also putting in place
interim measures from today to ensure a
smooth transition to the new regime. Environmental
impact assessments will need to be undertaken
and submitted to the EPA for oil and gas
drilling operations. Operators will also
need to comply with the latest drilling
safety rules developed in the United States
following the inquiries into the Gulf of
Mexico disaster.
“These measures complement last week’s announcements
by the Minister of Labour on the establishment
of a High Hazards Unit with four inspectors
specifically for the petroleum industry.
The Minister of Transport is also reviewing
the liability insurance requirements for
the industry and is looking to raise it
above the current level of NZ$30 million,”
Dr Smith said.
“The Bill has been introduced to Parliament
today and will have its first reading in
September. It will be subject to a full
Select Committee process of public submissions.
The Government’s intention, subject to the
results of the General Election, would be
to have the Bill passed in the first half
of next year.
“This initiative is part of the Government’s
bluegreen agenda of growing the economy
but also ensuring we have world’s best practise
in place to protect the environment.”
+ More
Increased Government
support for clean air
Nick Smith, Hekia Parata
2 August, 2011
An extra 1250 households each year will
be able to access Government funding to
replace their old solid fuel heaters, Environment
Minister Nick Smith and Acting Energy and
Resources Minister Hekia Parata announced
today.
“For the last three years, Warm Up New Zealand:
Heat Smart and Clean Heat have fitted around
10000 homes each year with clean heating
devises such as heat pumps. Warm Up New
Zealand: Heat Smart has also been highly
successful in insulating more than 100,000
homes which makes it practical for the Clean
Heat scheme, which replaces inefficient
open fires, to become part of it,” Dr Smith
said.
Ms Parata said: “By combining these two
programmes we expect to make it easier for
people who want to shift to clean heating
by stopping any confusion about which of
these programmes they should be applying
to. Savings from merging the two schemes
means an extra 1250 homes can receive the
benefits of clean heating.
“Warm Up New Zealand: Heat Smart has been
a huge success for clean heating with 20,000
new devices in two years under the National
Government. This compares to only 800 being
installed during Labour’s nine years.”
Dr Smith said as well as providing warm,
healthy and energy efficient homes, moving
more houses away from solid fuel heaters
will avoid an extra 35 tonnes of PM10, or
soot, being emitted into the atmosphere
each year.
“The number of regions exceeding the environmental
standards for air quality over the last
year has dropped. With Auckland and Hamilton
now achieving the target, a large proportion
of our population is breathing cleaner air.
“By supporting more people to move from
using solid wood to heat their home, we
should see an even bigger improvement in
regions meeting the air quality standards,”
Dr Smith said.
+ More
Paint recycling scheme
receives Govt accreditation
Nick Smith
10 August, 2011
Environment Minister Nick Smith today announced
the Government’s accreditation of Resene’s
PaintWise recycling and education programme
as a product stewardship scheme.
“Product stewardship schemes are an excellent
way of getting all parties involved in the
production and distribution of a product
to take responsibility for its environmental
impact at the end of its life,” Dr Smith
said.
“This initiative will help ensure surplus
paint is not washed down our sewerage or
stormwater systems where it can cause significant
environmental harm. It’s about better caring
for our waterways, estuaries and ocean environment
as well as recycling paint and containers.”
Resene PaintWise finds beneficial uses for
waste paint products, including donating
good quality paint to community group projects.
Waste paints may also be mixed together
to form a grey coloured paint, Resene EchoPaint,
which is available to councils and community
groups to cover graffiti. All the steel
and plastic paint pails returned as part
of the PaintWise scheme are recycled.
“People tend to buy more paint than they
need for a project and the waste paint is
often left in sheds and cupboards drying
out, before being taken to the local landfill.
This scheme provides New Zealanders with
an environmentally responsible way of disposing
of their waste paint.” Dr Smith said.
“Staff at Resene’s stores also encourage
responsible paint purchasing by helping
customers better calculate the amount of
paint needed for their project. When purchasing
paint, people are also told they can return
unused paint and paint containers to the
store, to be reused and recycled.
“Under the Waste Minimisation Act, I can
accredit product stewardship schemes that
meet the criteria for reducing waste and
environmental harm. The Resene PaintWise
scheme has been successfully operating for
six years and is the sixth product stewardship
scheme I have accredited.
“Resene is an excellent example of an organisation
taking responsibility for waste in its industry.
I encourage other organisations and industries
to get accredited so they too can receive
the economic and environmental benefits
of product stewardship.”
