Tony Blair urges on Labour to reverse ban on new licences for drilling in the North Sea
Tony Blair has called on the Labor government to reverse a ban on new licenses for oil and gas drilling in the North Sea, echoing calls from US President Donald Trump.
Sir Keir Starmer should cut windfall tax rates on oil and gas companies, saying the government’s clean energy plan is “leading Britain in the wrong direction”, the former prime minister’s think tank has said.
Labor has committed to plans to phase out oil and gas production in the North Sea by restricting new drilling licenses and increasing the Energy Profits Tax rate.
But in a new report, the Tony Blair Institute (TBI) called on the government to lift the ban on new exploration licenses and reduce tax rates on the sector, saying the measures “sharply increase policy risk and push capital out of the basin”.
“New licenses should be given a clear framework focusing on projects that are commercially viable, less carbon intensive than imported alternatives and compatible with a declining long-term production profile,” the report states.
“This is not about slowing the transition or rejecting the direction of travel; it is about making the transition manageable. An energy strategy that ignores income, security and political consent in the pursuit of symbolic purity will not last and will not deliver the climate outcomes it promises.”
The call echoes comments from Donald Trump, who called the North Sea “one of the largest reserves anywhere in the world” and criticized Britain for “making it impossible for oil companies to leave.”
“The UK produces only a third of the total energy from all sources it produced in 1999 – think about this, a third – and they sit on the North Sea, one of the largest reserves anywhere in the world, but they are not using it and that is one reason why their energy has reached catastrophically low levels at equally high prices,” he said in Davos last month.
TBI also criticized Labour’s bold promise to deliver “clean energy by 2030” to cut bills and tackle climate change.
The government, under energy minister Ed Miliband, is trying to ensure that almost all of Britain’s electricity comes from clean sources such as renewable energy and nuclear by the end of the decade.
But the TBI said the plan had become “an exercise in measuring false achievements” and called the plan “climate theater” rather than “climate leadership”.
“This doesn’t mean the UK needs less ambition. What it needs is a strategy based on today’s reality,” he said.
“Clean Energy 2030 is taking the UK in the wrong direction. Keeping it clearly focused on cheaper, more abundant energy is the only way to sustain growth, enable electrification and maintain public consent for climate action.”
