While it's great to see the outrage at the new ACT members bill proposing to ban councils from considering climate change in consenting decisions, but let's be clear: this was exactly the rule under RMA section 104e for 18 years - from 2004 to November 2022.
A history lesson 🧵 In 2004 Envt Minister Pete Hodgson, in his infinite wisdom, inserted this wording into the RMA, arguing this was necessary until there was a National Policy Statement on Climate Change to guide councils - & that climate change was best addressed by the ETS [WRONG!].

This is a great move. First, this:
"The authority’s market policy manager, Andrew Doube, noted that it estimated last year that households were on average paying up to $200 more than they should for electricity each year because of the smelter’s current power contract." /2

https://twitter.com/PullarStrecker/status/1560016091736571904

In 2015 Genesis said it was closing the Huntly #coal-fired power station.But @MeridianEnergy persuaded them to keep it open: part of its Tiwai deal. So the reason we're still burning lots of #coal is b/c of Meridian's deal to give Tiwai massively cheap energy /3

A 🧵about #coal & snails.
17 years ago, all 6000 of a rare & endangered species, a newly-discovered giant land snail, Powelliphanta augusta, were taken fm their only home, on the West Coast, to make way for an opencast #coal mine.
Where were they moved to? 🧐
...a fridge ❄️ /2 Later, about 4000 were moved to other parts of the Denniston Plateau, in an effort to see if they will survive there. This is still unknown: the survival rate is low.
In 2011 800 snails died when the fridge malfunctioned and they froze to death. 🥶😱 /3
bbc.com/news/world-asi…