More North Sea drilling will put UK at mercy of fossil fuel markets, ministers say | Energy

Expanding North Sea drilling would put the UK at greater risk from volatile fossil fuel markets, ministers have said, amid calls from Conservatives and some Labor MPs to breach a manifesto pledge not to grant new oil and gas licences.

Energy minister Michael Shanks said the UK had “learned the right lessons from this conflict to ensure we are never exposed to fossil fuels in the same way again, because this is not the first time households across the country have paid the price for our exposure to gas.””.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves is expected to announce plans in the House of Commons on Tuesday for the government to protect people from high energy bills caused by the US-Iran conflict.

The Conservatives plan to use their opposition day debate to argue for removing the windfall tax on oil and gas, ending the ban on new oil and gas licences, and approving the Rosebank and Jackdaw fields in the North Sea.

Both Reeves and energy minister Ed Miliband said weaning the UK off its dependence on fossil fuel markets was an important long-term way to address price shocks that have repeatedly hit the cost of living.

Miliband told the Labor Party (PLP) parliamentary meeting on Monday night that there was “an important lesson from the crisis”: “While we are dependent on fossil fuel markets, we are price takers, not price makers, and we are exposed.”

“From the moment this war began, we have been determined to move further and faster on the path to clean energy… We can only achieve energy sovereignty and national security with the domestic power we control.”

Miliband said the new licenses in the North Sea would not cause any change in prices. “Our opponents now say we should repeal the windfall tax at a time when all this means is depriving us of revenue we could use to increase energy company profits and help people through this crisis.

“They have raised £12bn since the start of the Russia-Ukraine war. There is no better example of who they are.” [Reform and the Tories] stand up and this is not the British people.”

Labor MP Henry Tufnell wrote: Sun It was time to change course on North Sea oil and gas, he said on Monday. “In the face of further geopolitical turmoil, it is time to change our approach to energy to protect families,” he wrote.

“Drilling in the North Sea and removing carbon taxes on British manufacturing will kick-start economic growth, tackle unemployment and economic inactivity in some of our country’s poorest parts, and prevent further deindustrialization.

“Shifting our carbon emissions to other countries may give some a sense of moral superiority or perhaps relief from guilt, but the fight against climate change is global.”

Labor MPs at the PLP meeting said there was little support for Tufnell’s stance within the party. “He was shot by others who said going backwards was a risk,” one said.

Shadow Energy Secretary Claire Coutinho said: “Turning our backs on domestic gas that could heat millions of homes would be madness in normal times, but in the midst of a gas supply crisis it is pure madness.

“We must step up Rosebank and Jackdaw and lift heavy bans and tariffs on the North Sea to bolster Britain’s energy security. Labor MPs have the chance to show they will put the national interest ahead of Ed Miliband’s bigotry.”

Reeves is expected to lay out plans on Tuesday for a new anti-profiteering framework to curb price gouging, particularly from oil retailers responding to US-Israeli attacks on Iran and retaliation from Tehran.

Miliband told the PLP meeting on Monday night: “No vested interest, no powerful interest can stand in our way.

“If the oil retailers don’t like it, it’s very difficult because we stand with the British people.”

Reeves is expected to announce in the House of Commons on Tuesday that the Fingleton review, which proposes changes to enable nuclear power to be built faster, will be introduced into legislation this year.

He is also expected to announce that the government is exploring allowing damages when critical energy security projects are legally challenged; This will mean fewer projects will be postponed.

A government spokesman said: “We inherited years of failure in the nuclear field and years of legislation that fell into the hands of obstructionists. We are fixing both.

“Through £120bn of public investment, including Sizewell C and the UK’s first small modular reactors in North Wales, we are building domestic energy that will protect working people’s bills for generations to come. This is the right economic plan, and one where we support builders, not blockers.”