So I'm going to look at an issue and I'm going to come to a conclusions that even five years ago I'd never have come to and I'm sure that many of you will be a little shocked by it. And the man I'm going to blame is David Byrne. The lead singer of Talking Heads. It's time for a nuclear power generation in New Zealand.

Trustpower, the nation's fifth largest power retailer, has just released their financial results. In it there are many worrying signals for the economy. It warns that there is a credible case for significant long term increases in power demand and there's uncertainty how that demand will be met.

In other words we're using more electricity but not making any more except on the edges with increased wind and solar. They also warn that the hydo lakes are currently well below average and there's a dry summer forecast. So the price of power is almost definitely about to rise. In fact they believe a number of retailers have their price too low and they may go out of business without a correction.

So that's just not good for an internal economy already struggling with other high energy charges like petrol.

Now add that to the news that the state generator is currently importing coal from Indonesia to fire up the Huntly coal power station and that gas generation is very low because half the gasfield is out of operation because the pipes are broken. And also remember that the gas is supposed to run out in 10 years.

We are in the beginning stages of a power crisis. Trustpower says they have no immediate plans to invest in more generation but is positioning itself for future development.

So we need that development, but what should it be.

Well David Byrne is coming to New Zealand for a concert and in the weekend I wrote an article about him. He has a website called Reasons to be Cheerful which is a good news site to counter the prevailing negativitiy of the media. It's cool.

And in the Climate and Energy sector David pointed me to an article in the Guardian written in 2011 by George Monbiot. It's called “Why Fukushima made me stop worrying and love nuclear power”. He argues that a crappy old reactor was hit by both an earthquake and tsunami an yet no-one died. In fact in the history of nuclear power almost nobody has died in comparison with tradition power generation. How many lungs are ruined by the coal burning stations through Asia and India?

As he says all energy production comes with a cost. So called renewables like hydro have limited capacity. They involve enormous damage to the environment through the construction of dams. Wind and solar are nice but barely enough to light the lights let alone charge the brave new world of electric vehicles. Frankly much of our green renewables are not nearly as green or renewable as we make out.

In New Zealand we need more power and we need it now. There are no more rivers to dam and anyway, how many Mountain snails are the Greens willing to drown for their electric bikes. The burning of coal is apparently adding to the demise of the planet's air and weather? How many hills do we want to despoil with windmills?

The nuclear industry has become increasingly efficient and safe. It doesn't produce so called climate change gases. It's not perfect but it's the closest we've got to a clean and sustainable energy source.

So here's my Road to Damascus moment. My big call. Many of you will hate it but I urge you to take the emotional glasses off and use your logic.

Convert Huntly from coal to nuclear. It'll give us a cleaner alternative than anything else and some breathing space until a long term answer is invented.