Ed Miliband has delivered the “final blow” to North Sea oil as he bows to Greenpeace and refuses to fight a climate lawsuit brought against two of Britain’s biggest oil schemes. The Telegraph has more.
The Energy Secretary has said that he will not resist legal challenges against licences issued for the Rosebank and Jackdaw oil fields – meaning the two projects are at high risk of being halted.
Claire Coutinho, the Shadow Energy Secretary, described the decision as a “final blow” for the North Sea.
Equinor is developing Rosebank, 60 miles west of Shetland, which contains up to 500m barrels of oil and was planned to operate until at least 2050. Jackdaw, which would produce 40,000 barrels a day for two decades or more, is being developed by Shell.
A spokesman for the Energy Department said: “The Government will not challenge the judicial reviews brought against development consent for the Jackdaw and Rosebank offshore oil and gas fields in the North Sea. This decision will save the taxpayer money.
“This litigation does not mean the licences for Jackdaw and Rosebank have been withdrawn.”
The legal dispute over Rosebank and Jackdaw follows a landmark decision by the Supreme Court in June, which ruled that emissions from burning fossil fuels must be considered when approving new drilling sites.
Greenpeace and fellow climate campaign group Uplift subsequently secured judicial reviews of oil licences already issued by regulators, including the North Sea Transition Authority, which approved Rosebank and Jackdaw and is ultimately overseen by Mr. Miliband’s department.
A final decision on the licences will depend on the companies and the courts, but if the Government refuses to defend the case the environmental groups are almost certain to win.
Brendan Long, Director of Research at investment company Zeus Capital, said that Mr. Miliband’s decision would put wider investment in Britain at risk.
He said: “The issue is not so much how this will affect the energy industry, but how it will affect the broader trust in the U.K. as a reliable jurisdiction.
“London has fallen out of the top 10 capital markets in terms of monies raised from initial public offerings. That might reflect that financial markets are increasingly concerned with the U.K. as a jurisdiction that values and defends property rights and the sanctity of honouring agreements made.
“It is a big mistake to believe financial markets will not appreciate the broader implications of such measures across all sectors of the economy.”
Ms. Coutinho, who approved the Rosebank licence when serving as Energy Secretary in the previous Conservative administration, said: “No other major economy is shutting down its domestic energy supply as the U.K. now is. We get roughly half of our gas from the North Sea but we will now be more reliant on imports with higher carbon emissions.
“It means £9bn of tax revenue and 200,000 jobs are being put at risk plus billions of investment into clean energy just so Ed Miliband can virtue signal on the world stage. It’s both economically and environmentally illiterate.”
Worth reading in full.
To join in with the discussion please make a donation to The Daily Sceptic.
Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.
Shes had her orders….
Ps, its 60k not 10k…
Phillipson can spout all sorts of twaddle in order to put a gloss on what is simply a tightening of rules around Free Speech. The suspicion if this move is not challenged and overturned is “who’s next?”
More WEF orders.
Don’t let the Tories off on this. If they had acted years sooner the legislation would have been well settled in by now.
They all have the same WEF handlers.
That is wonderful news!
Well done to Toby and the Free Speech Union team!
the legislation could “expose students to harm and appalling hate speech on campuses”
Nobody ever got harmed by speech and it’s the very purpose of this law to stop university administration from censoring on campus discussion on the pretext that of harm prevention based on the axiom that there are only two positions on every conceivable issue
Phillipson’s criticism is basically “I fear this law could be fit for purpose, ie, stop us from persecuting people at universities for disagreeing with out hallowed political opinions! This must not be allowed to happen!”
Of course she wants to stop that. The law was designed to stop her.
Good!
Why do all these Marxist Wimmin have Rosa Kleb haircuts?
I think they are more like Wendolene from Wallace & Grommit.
Ha-ha! Classic.
These people are so disgusting.
Does she go to the same hairdresser as Rachel Reeves do you think? Do they ask for the Richard the 3rd look I wonder?