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New Zealand Pilots a Green New Deal for Oil Workers
A blueprint for transitioning to a zero-carbon economy
While debate about an extremely hypothetical Green New Deal looks set to rage for the entirety of the Democratic primary and beyond, a small corner of the globe is actually putting the policy into action.
Welcome to Taranaki, New Zealand. Despite being a relatively small region (even by Kiwi standards), Taranaki is responsible for literally all of the country’s oil and gas production. With the highest GDP per capita of any region in New Zealand, Taranaki has seen an economic boom driven by its energy sector and rich reserves of petroleum. Expectations for further growth were extremely high, with 97% of the Taranaki basin ‘unexplored’ - ie, the vast majority of oil reserves off New Zealand’s coast remain untapped.
2018 saw a rapid dampening of those expectations. On April 12 that year, Jacinda Ardern (New Zealand’s Prime Minister) announced a nationwide ban on oil exploration, saying the “transition to a zero-carbon economy has to start somewhere.” While Taranaki operations with existing oil permits are allowed to continue, the ban on new oil and gas permits came into immediate effect. The leader of the opposition cleverly worked out the government’s game plan:
“What’s going to happen here is…
