No wonder anger is building over power crisis

National's Energy spokesman Gerry Brownlee says it's no wonder the New Zealand Contractors' Federation is slamming the fact that only 166 megawatts of power has been commissioned since 2000.

"It's obvious to everyone but the Government that since 2000, there's been a big jump in the demand for electricity.

"Between 1996 and 1999, around 1250 megawatts were commissioned. When National left office, legislation was on the Order Paper of the House to make changes to the RMA which would have significantly increased the amount of generation to come on stream for the year 2000.

"Contractors have every right to be angry about the current power crisis. It was clearly predictable, yet the Government was too slow to act.

"The PR campaign it's currently cobbling together to get people to switch off is nothing more than spin to try and shift the focus away from its own mishandling of the issue, and make it a problem of the people" says Mr Brownlee.

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