As the war in Iran enters its fourth week, even die-hard net-zero champions are beginning to rethink the UK’s approach to its North Sea resources. [some emphasis, links added]
Everyone, it seems, amongst them trade unionists, environmentalists, and even Labour’s own backbenchers, is urging a more pragmatic approach.
Everyone, that is, apart from Energy Secretary Ed Miliband.
He insists that, despite events, including an actual war bringing fresh turbulence to global energy markets, Labour’s pledge not to expand domestic oil and gas production must be upheld.
Instead, Miliband argues that the crisis underlines the need to “get off gas”.
Let us examine that strategy. The Government is targeting “clean power” by 2030, meaning unabated gas generation would run only around five percent of the time.
At the same time, it wants to electrify heating, transport, and industry, increasing electricity’s share of total energy demand from under 20 percent today to something much higher, although no specific target has been set. The delivery plan is strikingly thin.
The headline policy is to install 600,000 heat pumps per year. At that rate, it would take roughly 47 years to electrify domestic heating, and we’re not even close to achieving that pace today.
In transport, there is no comprehensive electrification strategy, merely a ban on new petrol and diesel cars from 2030.
For industry, there is no meaningful timeline at all. In other words, we have an ambition to electrify the economy, but no credible plan to achieve it.
Even if the 2030 clean power target were met – which few in the industry believe is realistic – electricity would still account for only around a fifth of total UK energy consumption.
The vast majority of our energy needs would continue to be met by oil and gas.
Yet astonishingly, the Government has no serious strategy to secure those supplies during the transition. The implicit assumption appears to be that nothing will go wrong. That’s not a strategy, it’s wishful thinking.
So what should the Government do instead?
First, scrap the windfall tax on UK oil and gas production and lift the ban on new drilling. We should then go further by introducing targeted tax incentives to accelerate new developments, alongside regulatory reform.
Regulators should be tasked with maximizing production while focusing enforcement on genuine environmental harm, rather than box-ticking exercises that delay investment.
Read rest at The Telegraph
