Source: Radio New Zealand
The war in the Middle East and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz has pushed up fuel prices. RNZ / Dan Cook
An energy sustainability expert thinks driving more efficiently could help the country get ahead of any future petrol shortages.
The war in the Middle East and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz has pushed up fuel prices and caused concern about disruption to supply internationally.
Emeritus Professor in Climate Mitigation and Sustainable Energy at Massey University, Ralph Sims, says there are ways to reduce fuel consumption before extreme measures like returning to the car-free and fuel rationing days of the 1970s and 1980s are considered.
“We’ve got to anticipate that we need to take some actions now, ready for when we’ve got extreme situations, which might be in five or six weeks’ time.
“But people love their cars, and like driving them, and so enforcement is not the easiest of options I think the government has got.
“If this war continues and the oil price goes up and there’s a much higher cost when you fill your car up, then there will be an incentive there, not needing enforcement, for people to look at ways of saving on fuel.”
Sim suggested the government do a national education campaign on fuel-saving tips like avoiding heavy braking, checking tyre pressure, and taking things that add weight, like a roof rack, off their vehicle when they are not needed.
“Most people don’t understand how to drive a car efficiently. I see people accelerate to a red light and then brake heavily, and if you’re running on low tyre pressures, it consumes much more fuel.”
He said limiting how often people could use their cars or how much they could fill up at the pump would be difficult to enforce.
“Car-less days, for example, many people found ways to get around it by having a second car.
“We can learn from what we did before. Did it work? How successful was it? Are there other ways to do it nowadays that are better?”
He said nowadays we also have more transport options available.
“The world has changed a bit now in that we do have electric buses in various cities, and we’ve got electric cars, and electric scooters, and public transport is much better than it used to be.
“To encourage people to get out of their petrol or diesel cars and utilise public transport is one way to conserve fuel. But getting people out of their cars is very difficult.
“Unless you’ve got some extreme situation, then education is the only way to try and change public behaviour.”
Richard Bosselman, the editor of the website Motoring NZ, said electric vehicle (EV) sales had been dismal in recent years.
But he speculated that if people were paying more at the pump, that might change.
“We have to make some hard and fast decisions about what kind of transport we need in this country and how we do it. I think electric is something that we need to jump back onto again and promote.
“Maybe this war will be a wake-up call, and maybe New Zealanders will think more about their car choices going forward.”
He said bringing back the Clean Car Discount, which provided rebates for low and zero-emission vehicles, to encourage people to buy EVs might help the country curb fuel use if the war continues.
He said it could also be an opportunity to develop the country’s hydrogen technologies.
“We’re at the end of the world. We’re at the end of a very long supply chain, so everything that comes to us is going to become more expensive. But we are a very self-sufficient nation. We create a lot of electricity and we can create more.
“We have opportunities to create hydrogen, and there’s a whole hydrogen infrastructure that sits there that could work for transport.
“I think this is a good time for Kiwis to take stock, be creative, and try and be optimistic about the future and look for solutions rather than be worried about the ultimate doom and gloom scenario, no matter how dark it all looks just at the moment.”
Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
