Cheap energy is the key ingredient of any prosperous economy. Where's ours?

Описание: Cheap energy is the key ingredient of any prosperous economy. But, despite all the ‘optimisation’ and ‘downward pressure on prices’, our bills keep going up.

Electricity is still cheaper than fossil fuels, but not all electricity is created equal. We can't just focus on wholesale prices or gentailer dividends. We should follow the money and make sure bills are going down.

That needs to be the primary measurement of success for this Government or any new Government should they take power after November's 'electric election'.

The big electricity landlords will keep putting up the rent. That's what the numbers show, with gas, electricity and petrol rising at above the rate of inflation over the past few decades.

But a massive roll out of rooftop solar would actually bring bills down for customers and the average home could save over $1,000 a year - including loan repayments.

The Government could help them do that through the proposed Ratepayer Assistance Scheme and, if they were actually interested in lowering your bills, so could the gentailers. As should be obvious, that is not the case because they have a vested interest in charging you as much as they can justify.

New Zealanders are sick of hearing about all these policies and programmes and not seeing anything change. It's time for a new approach.