Juliet Samuel proposes a reasonably quick and easy solution to the impending cost of living crisis, especially when it comes to energy. Increasing supply is the key to keeping prices down and here’s how:
“Boris could put together a package of incentives to ramp up exploration and production of gas in the North Sea.
Gas producers wouldn’t be able to fill demand in time to affect prices this year, but they could almost certainly raise production enough in the next few years to take the pressure off households and stabilise energy costs for the next decade, giving us valuable time to build a large-scale nuclear energy programme to replace all those coal plants that were hastily shut down.
Nor would this approach mean junking the Government’s net zero aspirations. At present, we import more than a fifth of our gas in liquid form on tankers, one of the most energy inefficient and expensive ways to use the fuel. Domestic production would simply displace a large slice of that consumption and see us through to the low-carbon era.
In the long run, a far more ambitious nuclear programme, improvements in energy storage and a carbon tariff to prevent emissions being moved offshore would enable the UK to deliver lower emissions without becoming the poster-child for how to impoverish yourself through reckless green policies.”
The only thing stopping the government is its fear of militant environmentalists. The Prime Minister should take them on.
“Rather than cowering before their roadblocks, Boris should go into battle. It is unacceptable that a tiny minority should determine policy for the rest of the country when households are struggling to manage an extraordinary hit to living standards.”
The full article can be read here with a link to the original beneath it.
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