Opposed to new drilling because NZ is not the one who will profit from it. We will only get the dregs of profit because a foreign company will benefit the most from the drilling, it probably wont even do much for our petrol prices; look at all the dairy we produce and how much we have to pay for it. If something goes wrong we will have to pay the full price for that. If NZ wants to haul itself out of debt, it has to stop being Americas bitch and find a financial system that doesnt involve the Federal Reserve. Because if we dont, no amount of oil will save us, only buy us more time. Its a pity that any alternative car ideas that dont involve a tradable commodity (so that certain companies can still profit off us) are ditched or hidden because of fear of petrol companies. It would not be so bad if average NZers would actually profit from this but it will only be a select few, so whats the point.

I don't believe there are actually some people that support Deep Sea Oil exploration...I am definately disgusted! they cannot be serious! I use my bike to go places and if I couldn't travel by plane...oh well, I would by wind and life will be much more exciting, I tell you. Bring back the horses to take the kids to school, to collect rubbish, etc (it's actually being done in some region of France). Use your legs and your body will appreciate!

IN regards to Jacobs message, there is an alternative to sugar cane and palm tree, HEMP! not only does it have atleast THREE times the cellulose level of any other plant, it has fibres dozens of times longer then any plant known to man, and also finer and stronger, and a seed which it produces more peer plant with some of the highest omega 3 levels of any plant/grain seed. This all cuppled with the fact it grows thicker and faster then any plant, literaly deweeding the ground and leaving roots behind which replenish the ground and have been used for thousands of years for settling unstable flood prone ground. A promising sustainable option, which would open up an intire industry creating thousands of truely dependable jobs for local communities instead of the gas supporting very few and mostly from far away. and if THC is your problem, even though through out all independent scientific studys a unanimous agreement that there is NO harmful effects, (because of the very nature of it and the way it effects humans) the plant is being grown in canada in a form with next to no THC, ok but why destroy another 1 of the benefits this plant can give our communities. SO now i ask you, Jacob, How can you justify reeping from, or raping the natural resources that contributes to the delicate enviroment at atmosphere for all we know to exist, when it benefits no one now and the truth is nature is being sabotaged and destroyed. JACOB?? Why stand still when we should be moving forward?

In this article the green peace spokeswoman says that deep water drilling is crazy due to the risks. I would be interested to see what evidence this is based upon and how (if at all) the risks are elevated over shallow water drilling. Personally i believe that if New Zealand is to haul itself out of its dept then be have to get over our reservations regarding potential risk and exploit our natural resources. As it is there is a substantial amount of scare mongering regarding the potential effect of oil drilling on the environment, a close look at the track records of deep sea oil drilling will show that when a country enforces tight saftey measures oil spills are a extremely rare, and often well delt with occurance. Besides the only way we could produce enough electricity for the car fleet to be powered by is a nuclear powerplant. I'd love to see you try sell that to the public. And don't even mention biofuels, to make enough to drive our country we would either have to replace all our food crops with corn/sugarcane or import it from third world countries (and starve them).

http://www.nrdc.org/wildlife/marine/sonarvideo/video.asp

Sending down sonar to search affects our sea mammals.

I don't see what part of this people find difficult to understand. The protesters are objecting to NEW deep sea drilling. So you can type out a long paragraph in support of the existing oil industry, you can type out a list of all the products that use oil, you can even criticize the protesters for using oil products - but you won't be touching their argument. I agree that right now we need oil, I agree that we shouldn't stop production from existing rigs right now - but I will be very impressed if you can make a good case for the benefits of NEW deep sea drilling to the new zealand public.

To Dave @ 19, False equivalence - the issue is with who profits and who bears the risk. People buying a plane ticket tacitly accept the risk that the plane will crash as being worth the benefit to them of taking the flight. In the case of off-shore drilling, you're asking local residents along the coast, and all NZers indirectly, to accept the risk when they personally will profit very little, if at all. This is not to mention the risk it poses to the entire world by pushing us incrementally towards dangerous climate change.

What is it with these folks, rushing around clucking about disaster like so many chicken littles? The oil industry actually has a good safety record. On occasion incidents occur, as in any human activity, but these are not a cause to stop everything but a stimulus to improve standards. All the planes in the world are not grounded when there is a plane crash, but the accident is investigated and recommendations adopted as future practice to make flying safer.

This issue is so important the Daily News needs to host a public debate between scientists and hobbits. I will volunteer to go head to head with Emily "Climate Justice". We need three more from each side for the teams to have this debate on TV and at the NPDC chambers. Will Roy Pilott organise this please?

It is a mute point whether we should be allowing deep sea drilling at the moment, clearly from recent events we should not, however the government cannot resist oil revenue and we all consume hydrocarbons. The critical point is the NZ government should give drilling rights only to companies with a proven safety track record which should comply with the standards at the moment set by Norway and the UK. The companies should also have access to funds and resources in order to move into swift and effective action if/when they have an offshore failure. The NZ govt needs to spend some of that revenue on practical monitoring of the industry.