A grateful nation celebrated when Andy Burnham dumped Ed Miliband as UK energy secretary.
Ed Miliband can even frustrate his fellow eco-activists (Image: Getty)
Britons also breathed a collective sigh of relief when the new PM resisted Miliband’s push to become Britain’s first Marxist-minded chancellor. So that’s two things Burnham has got right. Which is two more than Keir Starmer, and in his first week. There’s a problem though. Miliband is no longer in charge of energy policy, but his madcap policies remain in place and are set to cost us a fortune. Burnham must go further to erase Miliband’s legacy before it ruins us.
Whenever I criticise Ed Miliband, someone pops up to accuse me of being a climate change denier in the pay of Big Oil. I’m neither. I believe human activity is heating the planet, and we need to do something about it. And if I was being bankrolled by BP, my mortgage would be a lot smaller. I’m all in favour of home-grown renewables but we have to tackle the challenge rationally. Net zero is a massive challenge that can’t be done overnight. Or by 2030. I’m a realist. Miliband’s fantasy politics drives me mad.
His decision to block new North Sea oil and gas drilling is the definition of madness. By banning domestic production, we leave ourselves dependent on gas from Norway, which is growing ever richer on our money. We also import liquefied natural gas from the US and Qatar. Weaker regulation, methane leakage and long-distance shipping mean the total carbon emissions are four times higher than if we used our own. Britain is even importing jet fuel and diesel from Vladimir Putin’s Russia while shunning the North Sea. Madness.
Miliband said domestic drilling wouldn’t lower energy bills “by a single penny”. But he ignored the other advantages, including jobs, tax revenues, a stronger balance of payments, greater energy security and lower emissions. Offshore Energies UK reckons reopening the North Sea could generate £165billion by 2050. The cash could help fund the green transition at a more sustainable pace.
That’s one example of how Miliband went astray. Now here’s another, and it could cost us even more. Even hardcore lefties reckon it’s madness or worse, a total “con”.
One of Miliband’s first acts as energy secretary was to announce a £21.7billion project to develop carbon capture and storage, a technology designed to strip carbon emissions from heavy industry and bury them in empty gas fields beneath the sea. Where he found the money, I don’t know, although it was meant to be spread over 25 years.
Carbon capture sounds a nice idea but costs a fortune and has never worked at scale. Anywhere. Even eco-activists hate it, because it allows fossil fuel companies to keep polluting on the pretence it can all be captured later. The Guardian’s George Monbiot has hammered Miliband’s plan as a “farce”, “deranged” and “disastrous”. It’s not just me. Red Ed brings his fellow lefties out in boils too.
Monbiot cites figures suggesting the projected cost of carbon capture will be far greater than £21.7billion. Between now and 2050 it will total a staggering £264billion. Of that, £198billion goes straight onto our energy bills.
I don’t agree with everything Monbiot says. If we listened to him, we’d all be living in yurts and rubbing sticks to power the wi-fi. But I respect his integrity, and when even he calls out Miliband’s carbon capture madness, Andy Burnham has to listen.
New energy secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh seems to be taking a more balanced approach to North Sea drilling. She should take a balanced view of carbon capture too, and crush this con.