Ed Miliband’s war on North Sea oil wastes £150bn and drives up bills | Personal Finance | Finance
The bill for his madness is in, and it’s huge.
The UK’s Energy Secretary blinkered obsession with net zero is robbing Britain of energy security while handing billions to foreign oil and gas suppliers.
Incredibly, it’s likely to increase UK carbon emissions too.
PM Keir Starmer needs to shut Miliband down like a depleted gas field before he does even more damage. Our economic future depends on it.
In a single reckless decision, Miliband has cost the UK economy an incredible £150billion by blocking new North Sea oil and gas projects, new research shows.
He’s doing so while rejecting clear evidence that this would secure jobs, strengthen Britain and even cut greenhouse gases.
Miliband is right that climate change is a threat, but his push for net zero by 2030 will do more harm than good.
First, it’s an impossible target. Second, developing renewables may cost us a fortune we don’t have. During the election, Labour claimed this would cut household energy bills by £300. As I reported earlier this month, the reality is that it could end up costing every household a staggering £900 extra, every year.
The moment he took office, Miliband started rejecting new North Sea oil and gas drilling licences.
With some of the highest energy bills in the world, the UK is the only major economy deliberately shutting down its own production. No wonder our energy bills are rocketing and we all feel poorer.
The North Sea could supply half of the UK’s oil and gas needs up to 2050, according to a new report by Offshore Energies UK (OEUK).
The UK will need between 13 and 15 billion barrels of oil during this period, even as we transition to greener energy.
By tapping into our own reserves, we could produce seven billion barrels, which will add a staggering £150 billion to the economy.
But Miliband’s war on fossil fuels will cost us around three billion barrels in lost domestic production, forcing us to rely on expensive imports from foreign powers, not all of them friendly.
Worse, these imports have a far higher carbon footprint. Imported liquefied natural gas (LNG) has four times the emissions intensity of domestically produced gas.
So Miliband’s green policies are actually worsening global emissions while making us more dependent on volatile international markets.
Miliband’s refusal to back new North Sea development isn’t just economic suicide – it’s a national security risk.
As global tensions rise and energy markets fluctuate, the widening gap between what we produce and what we import will leave Britain at the mercy of unpredictable foreign suppliers and potential blackouts.
Despite the green shift, Britain will still need oil and gas for decades. Thanks to Miliband, we’ll be buying more and producing less.
His policies will also cost hundreds of thousands of jobs across the energy sector, while he squanders billions more on green quangos like Great British Energy and unproven carbon capture technology.
Energy-intensive businesses will flee the UK for countries with cheaper power, taking jobs and tax revenues with them.
Miliband is misfiring badly. Starmer needs to plug him now.
