New Zealand Oil and Gas says it doubts the Toroa permit in the Great South Basin will be developed under current regulatory settings.
The comments come in the same week that NZOG and partner Beach Energy applied to give up the Clipper permit in the Canterbury Basin.
"The Dunedin City Council does not support deep sea oil and gas exploration or extraction," Mr Hawkins said.
"The news of any surrendered permits or expired permits is welcome."
The council was focused on transitioning the city’s economy to being net-zero carbon by 2030, he said.
It was showing leadership in what the future economy looked like that supported the looming environmental challenge.
Mr Hawkins questioned the oil and gas industry’s claims about missed opportunities for the South.
"I have always found the claimed economic benefit to the city of a project such as this to be overly optimistic," he said.
"Even if they were not, they pale into significance compared to the cost of not shifting away from the fossil fuel industry and investing in a zero carbon economy."
The council had an obligation towards those who lived here now but also to everyone who came after, he said.
The best thing it could do was invest in a safer climate.
"Expanding deep sea oil and gas operation isn’t a part of that."
Oil Free Otago spokeswoman Rosemary Penwarden said the Great South Basin was one of the wildest oceans in the world.
"The oil companies know this," Ms Penwarden said.
"Most of them have left.
"Only New Zealand Oil and Gas are left now."
She understood the company would surrender its final permit in the South.
"It is complete insanity to be exploring for oil or gas that we cannot afford to burn if we want to keep a liveable planet for our kids," she said.
"The science is pretty clear.
"We are getting examples every day of climate change speeding up."
It was important to build the kind of future that people would be able to survive in and not waste any more millions of dollars digging holes in the wildest of oceans for oil and gas, she said.
Ms Penwarden disputed the industry’s claims that natural gas was a viable energy source in the transition to a fossil-free economy.
"Every time you have a find, whether it is oil or gas, you are exposing methane to the atmosphere," she said.
When burned, natural gas was a third less harmful than crude oil but the industry never counted the amount of gas leakage through the supply line, she said.
"That leakage brings gas up to as bad as the burning of coal."
Methane pollution over a 20-year term was towards 100 times worse than carbon dioxide, she said.
"This is exactly the wrong time that we need to be sending unnecessarily more methane into the atmosphere."
Ms Penwarden was pleased the Climate Change Commission had recommended an end date for natural gas.
"The commission seems to have seen through the spin that the oil and gas industry has been trying to teach us that gas is a transition fuel," she said.
"But of course the industry wants to keep going for as long as they can."
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So, an activist and a failed MP activist are happy, yay.
I'm sure people ACTUALLY involved in the economy and wanting work are happy as /sarc
Just in case anyone still doubts the wisdom of oil exploration, the UN released a new report yesterday. The report focuses on the climate crisis, the devastation of wildlife and nature, and the pollution that causes many millions of early deaths every year. It says societies and economies must be transformed by policies such as replacing GDP as an economic measure with one that reflects the true value of nature. Carbon emissions need to be taxed, and trillions of dollars of “perverse” subsidies for fossil fuels and destructive farming must be diverted to green energy and food production. As well as systemic changes, people in rich nations can act too, it says, by cutting meat consumption and wasting less energy and water. The fivefold growth of the global economy in the last 50 years was largely fuelled by a huge increase in the extraction of fossil fuels and other resources, and has come at massive cost to the environment. It says current measures to tackle the environmental crises are far short of what is needed: the world remains on track for catastrophic warming of 3C above pre-industrial levels, a million species face extinction and 90% of people live with dirty air.
Just shows how out of touch with reality this guy is. I think his plan is to destroy everything that works in Dunedin, sadly he seems to be succeeding.
Time for Radich and VDV to form a coalition. Too many other mayoral wannabes dilute the STV process. A coalition with VDV as deputy is the only way to roll the incumbent
Please keep posting this mate so as many people as possible can see it. You're spot on.
Thanks. I post it because I truely believe this model with VDV asking his voter base to support Radich as mayor. Putting egos aside and working together is the only way to clean Hawkins out under STV. Closer to the time I will approach VDV for a chat..
Wouldn't it be nice if our mayor and council concentrated on the core services ratepayers fund every year?!....It's not as if our rates are going down!
I wonder how many people who voted for this clown would be brave enough to put their hand up. Not many I'd imagine.
He was fast as a ferret to comment on this Green-agenda issue.
It's hard not to notice how slowly and ineptly he "noticed" the lead contamination of water supplied to Waikouaiti and Karitane. Where was the concern for the health of those people, particularly parents of small children? Where was his assurance that he and the CEO made it a priority to fix the system that allowed high lead readings to be treated as a non-issue because readings had been taken for some reason other than health? Where was his guarantee that important health and wellbeing matters would in future be communicated widely enough within the system so nobody's holiday would prevent action being taken asap. And what's with taking what he called SDHB (disputed) advice to leave people uninformed to still use the water pending further tests? Even if someone in SDHB said it, it's advice anyone with a conscience would reject. The mayor's job description doesn't specify "be the puppet of anyone who comes along with Advice" nor does it put covering one's own butt ahead of doing one's duty to the people of the whole of Dunedin in the present time, save the planet in time left over from immediate duties.
I agree, Hawkins is a terrible Mayor.
""I have always found the claimed economic benefit to the city of a project such as this to be overly optimistic," I have always found the claimed economic benefit of dots on the road, signs bought and paid for, boxes plonked on the roads, the octagon closed off, plastic flowers, "surface treatments" a billion dollar debt etc etc overly optimistic.
I'm not a fan of Hawkins. We need to look at his rise to power. There was two choices Vandervis or Hawkins... The population takes Hawkins over Vandervis every time. The reason Hawkins is in power is because of Vandervis.