Guido hears DESNZ has a big announcement on the grid for Thursday. Separately, Andy Burnham is expected in Scotland on the same day…
That means that Miatta Fahnbulleh and Burnham are expected to give approval for Jackdaw and/or Rosebank to begin operation. Now the by-election against the Greens is over…
Jackdaw is a Shell gas field 155 miles east of Aberdeen, and Rosebank is a larger field west of Shetland that holds mostly oil at circa 300 million barrels. Both are awaiting ministerial re-approval after legal challenges and have separate processes. Rosebank is a harder sell to environmental types but there has been increasing chatter about its expected approval…
Rosebank has more opposition but it it is much larger than Jackdaw. Better for Treasury coffers…
Burnham’s government delayed making a decision on either to avoid an attack from the Greens in Holborn & St. Pancras. Putting party politics above economic priority – what’s new?
Former Labour leader Neil Kinnock was asked if Burnham will take Britain back into the EU:
“Yes, sure – his commitment is authentic. He really does understand from the grassroots up why restoring what I think of as normality in our continent is vital for every party economically, politically, culturally, in terms of security, and he’s able to articulate it in language that people can understand. So yeah, he is definitely”.