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Speaker 1: News out of the Big four Gen Taylor's yesterday. They're

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Speaker 1: importing six hundred thousand tons of coal and storing it

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Speaker 1: at Huntley. This is to protect us from energy security

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Speaker 1: problems like the ones we had last year. It should

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Speaker 1: keep the plant running for another ten years. Mike Cases

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Speaker 1: with the rewiring altat Oh, he's the CEO.

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Speaker 2: Mike, Good morning, Good morning, Ryan, how are you, my friend?

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Speaker 1: Very well? Thank you. Good to have you back on

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Speaker 1: the show. Now, you're a practical guy, so I know

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Speaker 1: that you will understand why we need to do this.

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Speaker 2: Oh, one hundred percent, and hopefully we can get to

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Speaker 2: the no nonsense, no spin answers on this. But yes,

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Speaker 2: unfortunately we're in a situation that we need a giant

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Speaker 2: pile of coal at Huntley to keep our energy system running,

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Speaker 2: and we need to avoid it all costs rolling blackouts,

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Speaker 2: which well, you know, we may have come close to

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Speaker 2: in twenty twenty four with how high the price we

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Speaker 2: went because.

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Speaker 1: We thought we had lots of gas and turns out

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Speaker 1: we had less than we thought we did, and then

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Speaker 1: you end up with a crunch.

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Speaker 2: That's one hundred percent right. And the other big problem

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Speaker 2: that we've seen is twenty fifteen, the Activity Commission talked

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Speaker 2: about how we needed to wean ourselves off get off coal.

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Speaker 2: Nothing happened. Is now twenty twenty five, and I think

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Speaker 2: we sort of need to commit as a country maybe

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Speaker 2: to this being the last major coal oil order that

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Speaker 2: we ever make.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, do you think it will be?

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Speaker 2: I hope so. Put simply that we just need to

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Speaker 2: think about better ways of managing our large battery that

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Speaker 2: we have, which is our hydro lakes. And one of

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Speaker 2: the most exciting things is that, you know, the rollout

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Speaker 2: of you know what, I'm an advocate for the rollout

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Speaker 2: of solar across New Zealand. Rolling out solar across New

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Speaker 2: Zealand will ultimately allow us to hold on to our

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Speaker 2: water for longer and burn less coal.

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Speaker 1: What about geo thermal I was talking to Shane Jones

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Speaker 1: about this now there. It's hugely expensive to drill for

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Speaker 1: and need to do lots of holes apparently, but once

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Speaker 1: you get it, it's year round.

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Speaker 2: I'm a massive fan of geo thermal and all other

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Speaker 2: forms of renewables. The simple answer is, the more energy

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Speaker 2: that we can generate in the middle of winter, the

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Speaker 2: longer we can hold onto that water for and the

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Speaker 2: less coal that we need to be. So I think

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Speaker 2: all options should be on the table, and it really

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Speaker 2: comes down to a cost benefit analysis to working out

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Speaker 2: how we keep power bills low or the lowest possible

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Speaker 2: for NEWSIC wonders.

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Speaker 1: Appreciate your time, Mike, Mike Casey, rewiring olts O CEO

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Speaker 1: for more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge. Listen live

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Speaker 1: to News Talks it Be from five am weekdays, or

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