ED Miliband halting new oil and gas licences is a very welcome change of direction for UK politics and effectively brings the UK Government into…
licences is a very welcome change of direction for UK politics and effectively brings the UK Government into line with what was the Scottish Government’s policy on new oil and gas in January last year.
The Supreme Court’s ruling last month that oil extraction must fully account for all oil emissions is significant here. Until then, a case was being built that a “net zero” oil rig would be one that transported workers to and from it without burning fossil fuels and was powered by renewable energy instead of a fossil-fuel power plant but that basically washed its hands of whatever happened to the oil it extracted . If you bought some of their oil and burned it, that wasn’t their problem.
As welcome as Miliband’s stance is, it likely doesn’t go far enough. He’s equally stated that he won’t revoke licences already granted but not yet being exploited nor will he shut down oil wells that are still economically producing oil. A just transition for workers is vital and I sympathise with Unite’s “no ban without a plan” slogan, but I fear that the politicians will stick to the easy option of “no ban” rather than what they should do, which is to bring those workers into the room immediately and help them design the plan that grants them the just transition they want and deserve before another political deferral forces a chaotic collapse of the oil industry and sees oil workers dumped just like their predecessors in the...
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