Sir Keir Starmer bowed to Ed Miliband’s demands to go faster on Net Zero goals as he unveiled a flagship energy bill in the King’s Speech.
The Prime Minister backed the Energy Secretary’s plans to ensure the country goes ‘further and faster to deliver clean energy’.
But there was no mention of whether the Rosebank and Jackdaw oil and gas fields in the North Sea would be approved.
Instead, the bill restates the commitment to not issue new licences for exploration and keep the ban on fracking.
While the Labour manifesto commits the party to not issuing new North Sea oil and gas licences, this will be the first time that the pledge is written into law.
The move will infuriate those who have been arguing for Britain to use homegrown oil and gas rather than relying on expensive imports.
The UK’s exposure to global energy prices has meant it has been far more impacted than other countries through bills and inflation.
Despite this, Mr Miliband has refused to make use of the North Sea supplies and instead focused on renewables.
The Energy Independence Bill also commits to ‘accelerate’ the UK’s drive for energy security through wind and solar power and hydrogen.
Energy Secretary Ed Miliband is under mounting pressure to issue new licences for drilling oil and gas off the Scottish coast
The Energy Independence Bill, mentioned in the King’s speech today, commits to ‘accelerate’ the UK’s drive for energy security through wind and solar power and hydrogen
It restates commitments to reform planning rules to make it easier to install renewable energy infrastructure.
Elsewhere, the bill restates the Budget commitments to move the cost of some green taxes off bills and on to general taxation.
This enables Labour to claim they’re reducing prices though in reality they are just moving the costs so bills look smaller.
Despite the move – and Labour’s pre-election pledge to reduce bills by £300 – energy bills are still £190 higher than when it came to power last year.
They are expected to rise far higher when the next price cap takes effect in July as they will factor in the costs of the Iran war.
There was no announcement of any help for homeowners to cope with the costs of the Middle East conflict which will increase bills.
The King’s Speech states that it will ‘expand the Government’s toolkit’ to enable ministers to target help at ‘low-income and vulnerable’ households – but no commitment to do so.
Draconian rules to force private sector landlords to invest up to £10,000 in home upgrades to cut bills for their tenants will also be implemented, it said.
It also contains plans to change the powers and remit of the energy regulator Ofgem to allow it to regulate energy brokers to stop unfair practices.
Labour has set a target of at least 95per cent of Britain’s power generation to be produced from ‘clean’ energy by 2030.
This include renewables as well as nuclear and hydrogen and gas that has been offset by carbon capture and storage.
But this approach has faced much criticism, including from the Tony Blair Institute which has called for the focus to instead be on lowering prices.
The UK has some of the highest energy prices in the world that were spiked by both the Ukraine and Iran war due to the exposure to global energy prices.
