Trump: Britain Making Very Big Mistake by Abandoning North Sea Oil for "Windmills"

Trump: Britain Making Very Big Mistake by Abandoning North Sea Oil for “Windmills”

Donald Trump has told Keir Starmer to “open up” the North Sea and “get rid of windmills”, as the President-elect attacked the U.K. Government’s Net Zero energy policy. The Telegraph has more.

In an outburst published on social media, Mr. Trump said the U.K. was making “a very big mistake” by retreating from oil and gas, which clashes with his pledge to “drill, baby, drill”.

The criticism comes amid an exodus of operators from the North Sea, which are ditching the U.K. in protest against the Government’s windfall tax.

This includes U.S. oil and gas producer Apache, which Mr. Trump referred to in his post on Truth Social early on Friday.

The boss of Apache’s parent company APA said in November that it planned to exit the North Sea by the end of 2029 because the windfall taxes imposed on its U.K. profits made drilling “uneconomic”.

Fears over the future of the North Sea have increased since Labour was elected, as Ed Miliband, the Energy Secretary, has prioritised achieving clean [sic] power by 2030.

However, the Government’s focus on renewables such as offshore wind has put Britain on a collision course with Mr. Trump, who has vowed to expand US and oil and gas production once he re-enters the White House later this month.

In his post on Truth Social, Mr Trump said: “The UK is making a very big mistake. Open up the North Sea. Get rid of windmills!”

Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor, announced in the Budget that she would increase the windfall tax on North Sea oil and gas producers from 35% to 38%, and extend the levy by a year.

This led to several North Sea producers warning that the higher tax rate could lead to a sharp drop in investments, while others are exiting the basin altogether. …

The slowdown in the North Sea has emerged as companies are also reconsidering their investments in offshore wind.

Ørsted, which operates 12 wind farms in the U.K., recently cut hundreds of jobs after posting around £2.2 billion worth of losses for 2023.

It also emerged in December that British bill payers had spent £1 billion to temporarily switch off wind turbines last year as the grid struggled to cope with excess power.