Britain’s energy policy is a national embarrassment. For years, successive governments have insisted on pursuing an aggressive green agenda, which has prioritised decarbonisation over domestic energy security.
The Conservatives started it with their mad dash towards Net Zero.
Labour, under the influence of its eco-maniac Energy Secretary Ed Miliband, have gone further and faster, insisting Britain’s energy future lies firmly in renewables.
As I have argued, this reckless strategy has left Britain dangerously reliant on foreign gas imports, often from regimes that don’t necessarily have our best interests at heart. Thanks to conflicts in Ukraine and now Iran, which have wreaked havoc on energy markets, the chickens have well and truly come home to roost.
Countries such as Norway continue to extract their own gas from the North Sea, yet Britain is having to pay through the nose for supplies from abroad.
As a result, British industry has been hammered by soaring energy costs.
Meanwhile, the hard-working families of what we call ‘Alarm Clock Britain’ have some of the highest energy bills in Europe.
While Reform will slash green levies and VAT from household bills, reverse the planned 5p rise in fuel duty and halve VAT on road fuel for three months, there is another solution.
Labour, under the influence of its eco-maniac Energy Secretary Ed Miliband, have gone further and faster, insisting Britain’s energy future lies firmly in renewables, writes Richard Tice
We must drill for our own gas. Yes of course offshore in the North Sea – but also onshore.
Britain has significant untapped gas potential. Did you know, for example, that Lincolnshire has a gas field containing 16trillion cubic feet of gas? That’s enough to meet the UK’s energy needs for an entire decade. There are a variety of ways we can carry out on-shore drilling, including fracking. In Lincolnshire a much lower-volume method could be used called ‘proppant squeeze’, which involves injecting sand and fluid at high pressure into rock, forcing gas to the surface.
Yet instead of responsibly exploring the opportunity to tap these vast reserves, one government after another has effectively shut the door, restricting onshore drilling while simultaneously increasing our reliance on imported gas. It’s utter lunacy.
Expanding mainland extraction alongside continued offshore production would deliver three immediate benefits.
First, it would improve energy security, reducing our reliance on foreign suppliers.
Second, it would create jobs and drive growth. Because onshore drilling is not just about energy. It is about investment, infrastructure and employment.
Skilled jobs would be created across the country, particularly in regions that have been overlooked for too long. Third, it would help bring prices down. More supply, particularly domestic supply without needing to transport it across oceans, puts downward pressure on costs. That’s just basic economics.
If you don’t believe me, take a look at the United States. People forget that in the early 2000s, US gas prices were considerably higher than those in the UK.
Ed Miliband can import as many of his dreadful turbines from China as he likes but if the wind doesn’t blow, we need gas to fill the energy gap, writes Richard Tice
Then the US dramatically increased supply via onshore drilling. The result was a transformation: Prices fell sharply, American industry boomed, jobs multiplied and the US became a net exporter. Indeed, since the conflict in Iran began, gas prices in the US have barely moved.
Britain seems to have learnt the opposite lesson, even though recent polling by Merlin Strategy for the campaigning organisation Looking For Growth showed the majority of voters were in favour of on-shore drilling.
The Conservatives must shoulder a huge amount of the blame. They presided over a decline in drilling and exploration while offering little more than slogans about green transition. Now out of office, some claim to have seen the light. Forgive me for being unconvinced. You cannot spend years shutting down domestic production, taxing profits to the hilt, blocking investment and increasing reliance on imports, and then suddenly present yourself as the solution.
Sorry, the reality is that the record of the Tory-led ‘uniparty’ has left Britain weaker and more exposed to the insecurity of international supply. Gas will remain a critical part of our energy mix and will do so for years. Pretending otherwise is childish dogma.
Ed Miliband can import as many of his dreadful turbines from China as he likes but if the wind doesn’t blow, we need gas to fill the energy gap. We have vast reserves of the stuff beneath our feet and under our seas. Yet for too long, ideological zeal has trumped economic reason.
I say it is nothing short of our patriotic duty to use our energy treasure. We owe it to our grandchildren to start drilling for it.
We have the resources. We have the expertise. All we lack is a government with the backbone to get on and do it.
