Last election, National whipped up a hate campaign against government regulation. Their poster child was a requirement that all light bulbs be energy efficient - something they denounced as "nanny statism". In retrospect, that's looking like a big mistake. According to a study by EECA, its existing, weak energy efficiency requirements saved consumers more than $150 million in electricity costs last year. The amount of electricity saved is equal to the output of a decent wind farm, enough to power Christchurch for two months.
And that's just from whiteware, fridges, and heat-pumps. Imagine how much more we could have saved if we had proper standards for lighting - or for vehicles. National's refusal to impose standards in these areas, to push the market to provide more efficient products, so that upgrades result in efficient technology rather than dirty, have cost us all money.
