As “woke” European nations prepare for a cold dark winter amid the mounting energy crisis, the UK’s new Prime Minister Liz Truss has unveiled a plan to boost the domestic output of fossil fuels to fend off shortages.
Just days after taking over from Boris Johnson as the Conservative Party leader, Truss announced a freeze on household energy bills, an end to the ban on fracking for shale gas, and new licenses to drill oil in the North Sea.
With British families facing a brutal energy and cost of living crisis, Truss is taking bold non-woke action to stem the proverbial bleeding and lay the foundations for greater energy independence after years of mismanagement.
Speaking in the House of Commons, Truss first announced a temporary suspension of green agenda levies and then the two-year freeze, which will mean “a typical household will pay no more than £2,500” and “save a typical household £1,000 a year” and come on top of “the £400 energy bill support scheme” announced by the Johnson administration.
Businesses, charities, and public sector organizations will receive an “equivalent guarantee” — but only for six months, with further support offered to “vulnerable sectors” after this in a non-specified way.
The freeze on energy bills is expected to cost some £150 billion, according to The Times.
However, this could change with wholesale natural gas prices.
Truss rejected imposing a windfall tax on energy companies, as demanded by the opposition Labour Party, to help fund the policy, on grounds that this would hinder efforts to increase domestic production.
On domestic production, Truss promises “over 100 new licenses” to extract North Sea oil and gas.
The plan also includes accelerated deployment of “clean and renewable technologies including hydrogen, solar, carbon capture and storage, and wind, where we are already a world leader in offshore generation.”
More importantly, she confirmed she will “end the moratorium on extracting our huge reserves of shale, which could get gas flowing as soon as six months.”
Although she notes that opposition from climate activists could significantly slow things down.
Truss did make a point of saying she remained “committed to net zero by 2050” regardless of her announcements on fracking and North Sea extraction, however.
“If we fail to act, if we don’t protect the economy against the shock of the size and scale that we are talking about, then there is going to be enormous economic damage in any event,” explained Simon Clarke, the Truss administration’s so-called “leveling up” secretary, prior to the PM’s controversial announcement.
Paul Johnson of the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) said a price freeze would be a “terrible policy” that could “[hold] prices constant [and] strain… supply, [increasing] the risk that you’ll end up with shortages.”
But Johnson added that it was likely “unavoidable” regardless, with few other options available to see the British public through the winter.
Indeed, for all its potential downsides, Truss’s spending splurge is being welcomed by prominent non-partisan actors for its potential to avert disaster in the short term for a great many ordinary people.
“My great call has always been that we need to have the political will to do something,” Martin Lewis of moneysavingexpert.com, Britain’s most famous consumer campaigner, told listeners on BBC Radio 4.
“I think we now have that political will, I very much welcome the plans that are coming today.
“Millions of people, if not tens of millions, will breathe a sigh of relief.”
