Ed Miliband will destroy our North Sea industry we’ll rely on imports | Politics | News
Shadow Energy Minister Claire Coutinho will push Government to green light drilling (Image: Getty)
This week’s King’s Speech was an exercise in Orwell’s doublespeak. The Labor Government has announced plans for an Energy Independence Bill that will deliberately shut down our oil and gas industry in the North Sea. It will send the jobs of thousands of hard-working Brits to places like Qatar, Russia, China and the USA; Because we won’t need less oil and gas anymore, we’ll just be forced to rely more on higher-emission imports from foreign regimes.
Only someone as delusional as Ed Miliband could have introduced an Energy Independence Bill that would make us weaker, poorer and more dependent on the whims of foreign regimes for our energy supplies.
Conservatives are clear. We need to support the North Sea for our energy security. I signed on to the Rosebank field in government and was introducing new legislation requiring licensing rounds for new fields every year. My claim has always been the same; Supporting the North Sea means more tax revenue, more energy security, more jobs and more growth.
We must stop demonizing the necessary, productive parts of our economy and driving them into oblivion with endless interventions, bans and taxes.
Experts say we will lose £25 billion in North Sea tax revenue over the next decade because of Labour’s plans. We can use this money to lower taxes and ease the pressure on families struggling with their bills.
Unfortunately, Ed Miliband, who wants to be our next Chancellor, is choosing to leave literally billions of pounds in the ground and tax working Brits more so we can pay other countries for the energy we could produce here ourselves.
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Where is the logic in stopping our own production in the North Sea in order to increase imports from Norway, which drills from fields in the North Sea that we refuse to drill in?
It’s not just our oil and gas industry that’s under stress. The war in Iran and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz mean we may face shortages of refined products such as jet fuel in the coming months.
We lost a third of our refineries last year and could lose our last four refineries due to Labour’s increased Carbon Taxes. A similar story plays out in chemistry, glass and ceramics. We need to reject the idea that we can decarbonize by deindustrializing.
Why are Labor signing up to this nonsense? Ed spoke quite clearly. According to him, this bill is “climate leadership”. But if your plan means lower growth, fewer jobs, less tax revenue and greater dependence on foreign imports, then who exactly will follow your lead?
Therefore, we are determined to solve the problems from our party’s past. Under Kemi’s and my leadership, we will repeal the Climate Change Act and prioritize cheap energy.
We are the only party with a fully funded plan to repeal the Carbon Tax to save British industry. We need to double down on safe, reliable nuclear energy that can keep the lights on all year round. And finally, to make electricity cheaper, we need to reduce taxes and fees on people’s bills. Making electricity cheap so that people want to use electric cars and heating without being taxed or forced would be much better for the environment overall.
Labor accepts demands from opponents of fracking (Image: Getty Images)
Our Cheap Energy Plan will reduce everyone’s home energy bills by £200 and business electricity bills by 20%. If Labor wanted to it could do it today and it would make us all better off. Cheap electricity is needed for future industries such as artificial intelligence, which will also make life easier for millions of households and businesses.
All political parties will continue to fail unless they take the tough steps of restructuring the state so that it can truly deliver what the people want.
We will give MPs the right to vote next week. The Conservatives will propose an amendment to the King’s Speech to support our own energy supplies in the North Sea and approve the Rosebank and Jackdaw oil and gas field applications, which have been sitting on Ed Miliband’s desk for months.
Instead of Ed Miliband’s student policies, we should repeal the Carbon Tax, repeal the Climate Change Act, double down on nuclear power and make electricity cheap. This is what true energy independence looks like.
