Ed Miliband forced to look again at North Sea oil and gas
The UK government is mulling over a change to the law to oil and gas projects in the North Sea in a drive to lower energy bills.
Michael Shanks, a minister working under energy secretary Ed Miliband, will be visiting Scotland on Thursday with a decision set to be made on the government’s intervention on legal cases won by environmentalists last year over an oil project by Equinor at Rosebank and a gas field by Shell in Jackdaw.
The government has given extra funds for the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero to invest between 2026 and 2029, with £14bn set aside for a new nuclear plant at Sizewell C and an industrial strategy set to outline government plans on reducing energy bills.
The oil and gas sites have received heavy criticism from Miliband while courts in Scotland blocked projects on the basis projects were approved without greenhouse gas emissions being considered, putting millions of pounds of investment into jeopardy.
Developing offshore sites
A new draft of guidance on emissions is reportedly set to be unveiled and it will signal how energy giants can regain licences and develop offshore sites.
The shift in policy comes after City AM revealed the government admitted low carbon technologies were more expensive to use than fossil-fuel powered alternatives.
The admission came in the minutes for a PAC report, which is publicly available online, detailing the government’s responses to recommendations made on energy policy.
The statement explains that high electricity prices in the UK may be due to the costs of operating renewable energy such as solar power and offshore wind, as well as other technologies, which may include energy storage methods and energy infrastructure.
“Low carbon technologies can be more expensive to run than fossil-fuel powered alternatives,” the government said in its response to the PAC recommendations on energy bills.
“The price disparity between electricity and gas needs to be addressed to make it more attractive for consumers to install clean technologies like heat pumps.”
Hopes oil and gas sites will ease prices
Recent data showed standard electricity bills reaching £1,067 last year compared to £814 for gas, making average energy bills stand at around £1,881 in 2024.
The previous government supported rolling out projects to boost energy supplies, with Rosebank expected to generate thousands of jobs for construction.
Jackdaw was projected to provide up to six per cent of the UK’s gas demand before it was blocked by judges due to the “interest of members of the public in climate change”.
Miliband would still have to give projects the go-ahead if Shell and Equinor return with proposals.
Confederation of British Industry (CBI) boss Rain Newton-Smith was the latest industry leader to call for the government to tackle high energy costs.