Sunak Doubles Down W. A Big Meaningless "Fuck You" To All Things Environmental And Climate-Related
Rishi Sunak’s government will use next week’s king’s speech to advance expansion of North Sea oil and gas exploration, as well as pro-car policies, in the hope of opening up a clear divide over the green agenda with Labour, the Observer understands. Energy industry sources and senior figures in Whitehall say they expect ministers to announce legislation to usher in a new annual system for awarding oil and gas licences, despite the UK’s commitments to move away from fossil fuels and reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050.
The king’s speech, the final legislative programme before the next general election, is also expected to include measures that will explicitly favour motorists, including making it more difficult for local authorities to introduce 20mph speed limits or supposedly unpopular schemes such as the ultra-low emission zone (Ulez), recently expanded in London.
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With his party lagging way behind Labour in the polls, Sunak announced a major U-turn on green policy in September, postponing the deadline for selling new petrol and diesel cars and the phasing out of gas boilers, prompting fury from the car and energy industries. He hoped to win over voters worried that green policies would add to the cost of living. But since relaunching his premiership and axing the Birmingham to Manchester leg of HS2, the Tories have made no progress. In today’s Opinium poll for the Observer, they remain 15 points adrift of Keir Starmer’s party.
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New data from Uplift – an NGO that supports the transition from fossil fuel production – shows that hundreds of North Sea licences have been issued in six rounds since the Conservatives came to power in 2010. However, this has led to the discovery of only five new oil and gas fields and enabled a further seven previously discovered fields to be developed. These 12 new fields contain just nine weeks of gas, but only half have begun producing. To date, just 16 days worth of gas has been produced from them since 2010. And half of this has been produced by the Sillimanite gas field, which is 30%-owned by Russian gas giant Gazprom, and has been exported to the Netherlands. After five decades of drilling, the North Sea’s dwindling reserves, which are largely (70%) oil, mean significant new discoveries are unlikely.
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https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/oct/28/rishi-sunak-to-double-down-on-anti-green-policies-in-kings-speech