Labour’s Net Zero V.S. ‘growth’ war continues to roll on, with mounting evidence that Ed Miliband’s Net Zero dream doesn’t actually ‘go hand-in-hand with growth’. Miliband himself has admitted that his policies will drive up energy bills, while Reeves faces pressure to raise taxes again as her ‘fiscal headroom’ shrinks. Even Labour’s own side have turned against the policies, with the Tony Blair Institute now warning that the promised economic benefits of Net Zero won’t actually materialise. It ain’t cheap going green…
Fresh polling from the Energy Industries Council paints a grim picture: only one in six (14%) energy executives now believe the world can achieve Net Zero by 2050, a sharp drop from nearly half (46%) who held that view last year. Meanwhile, cross-party MPs and peers of the Net Zero Scrutiny Group, chaired by Lord Mackinlay, have written to Miliband accusing him of “playing into Putin’s hands” for shutting down the UK’s last remaining shale gas wells. Zelensky has urged Europe to “step up” to achieve real energy independence, yet the continent still relies on Russia for around 20% of its gas needs—a number that’s only increasing. A shame Starmer isn’t in Ukraine to discuss the consequences of Labour’ Net Zero agenda in person…
Read the letter to Red Ed in full below:
Dear Secretary of State,
We are disappointed to read that energy company Cuadrilla has been ordered by the North Sea Transition Authority to plug and abandon with concrete the UK’s only viable shale gas wells at the New Preston Road site in Lancashire, with work set to start this month.
When we were in government, we played our part in ensuring that these vital national assets were saved and remained at the country’s disposal. In today’s volatile world, we should not be abandoning Britain’s natural energy assets so flippantly. The country will gain nothing by concreting them over, as they are not currently being used. Ordering them to be concreted over smacks of blind ideology, rather than consideration of the national interest, and is an attempt to prevent any future Government from using these resources if they wished to do so either as a matter of policy or in an emergency.
Just last week the International Energy Agency warned that “the global gas balance remains fragile” and urged the world’s most advanced economies to take steps that will “secure global gas supplies”. How does concreting over Britain’s only natural gas shale wells contribute?
President Zelensky has called on Europe to “step up” to “secure real energy independence.” The continent still relies on Russian gas supplies for around 20% of its gas needs, and this figure is growing. Britain should help extricate our allies from their damaging reliance on Moscow, and the 37 trillion cubic metres of gas under our feet could be vital in helping to do so.
It is clear to everyone, including the Climate Change Committee, that we will need to continue using gas for decades. The choice is whether we import from the likes of Algeria, Qatar, Egypt or Angola, where emissions are higher and environmental standards lower, or use domestic sources. It is your duty to ensure that the price we are paying for our gas is as low as possible.
The regulator said in 2023 that “domestically produced gas is on average almost four times cleaner than importing gas in LNG form”. It is a patent fact that liquifying and transporting gas is an energy intensive and C02 producing process.
National Gas data shows that UK gas stockpiles are down by 36.7% on last year’s level and Centrica has warned that the UK’s storage sites have “concerningly low” levels of gas. These are people’s lives that are being put in jeopardy. We need natural gas to keep the lights on, heat our homes, cook food and to power Britain’s businesses. Concreting over these wells will simply set in stone the amount of gas we have to import.
We have very little idea how 2025 will pan out. The world is in a dangerous and unpredictable place. At the very least, the government should instruct the NSTA to revoke the plugging and abandonment order, as was done in 2022.
If this concreting order goes ahead, and Britain’s only shale gas wells are destroyed, the British public will be left in no doubt that this is an ideological government that prioritises an extreme net zero agenda and ideological purity, rather than this country’s national security and people’s bills.
Lord Mackinlay of Richborough
Rt Hon Lord Frost CMG
Lord Moylan
Baroness Lea of Lymm
Lord Strathcarron
Lord Leigh of Hurley
Rt Hon Lord Brady of Altrincham PC
Rt Hon Lord Lilley
Lord Moynihan of Chelsea
Baroness Foster of Oxton
Rt Hon Sir Iain Duncan Smith MP
Rt Hon Suella Braverman KC MP
Jack Rankin MP
Sir Alec Shelbrooke MP
Rt Hon Sir Julian Lewis MP
Andrew Rosindell MP
Sir Bernard Jenkin MP
Rt Hon Sir Oliver Dowden MP
Sammy Wilson MP
Grah am Stringer MP
Greg Smith MP
Dr Caroline Johnson MP
Sarah Pochin at Reform Scotland’s manifesto launch event: “I really wanted to come on in a Reform tartan burka, but apparently I wasn’t allowed… One day let’s do one of these events not live-streamed. We’ll do all the naughty stuff…”