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Blossoming romance with Green Party to follow

A local National Party MP has spoken out against lignite mining, a stance that controversially runs against the National party line. 
At a Generation Zero panel discussion held before mid-semester break, National MP Michael Woodhouse was asked whether or not lignite mining should go ahead, to which he replied emphatically, “no”. 
However, previously at an Otago University Vote Chat, Woodhouse had professed to be strongly in favour of offshore drilling and lignite mining in Southland. Woodhouse had stated “I do not believe there is a mutual exclusivity between sustainability and benefiting from our natural resources”.
Woodhouse’s public stand comes as somewhat of a shock, given John Key’s recent statement purporting to support lignite mining. “At the moment companies like Solid Energy are growth companies and we want them to expand in areas like lignite conversion.”
Members of environmental youth movement Generation Zero had met with Woodhouse earlier that day. Although at their meeting Woodhouse did not openly condemn lignite mining, he did say that he had read a report on lignite mining by Jan Wright, the Parliamentary Commissioner that had “shocked” him.
Generation Zero Co-Leader Josh Pemberton said he was “really stoked” about Woodhouse’s change of heart. Although he didn’t see Woodhouse’s change of heart as “spontaneous” or entirely due to the work Generation Zero, he thought the change was based on awareness of how important youth think climate change is. He further noted that Generation Zero’s ultimate aim was to tell politicians that young people will vote for politicians who look after the environment. 
Woodhouse was unable to be reached for comment about the situation or the reaction of other National party members to his comments.
Lignite, which is a form of low-grade coal, is economically valuable as it can be converted to diesel. According to the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment, the development of one lignite-to-diesel plant of the size currently being talked about would increase New Zealand’s 2020 emissions by 20% in excess of that mandated by the Kyoto protocol