‘We cannot sacrifice families on the altar of climate change’

Written by The Daily Mail on February 11, 2022. Posted in Current News

Boris Johnson is facing increasing organised Tory opposition to his multi-billion-pound green energy plans amid a deepening cost of living crisis.

The Net Zero Scrutiny Group (NZSG) of backbenchers has warning his plans to slash the UK’s carbon output by 2050 are misplaced at a time when so many face a struggle with their energy bills.

Gas prices have fuelled huge increases in costs for families, which are set to be exacerbated by inflation and a hike to National Insurance contributions from April.

The Prime Minister’s Net Zero plans are seen by many Tories as a sop to his wife Carrie, a noted environmental campaigner.

Yesterday the PM shot down Jacob Rees-Mogg at a Cabinet meeting for suggesting that fracking for shale gas should be permitted.

The new Brexit Opportunities Minister is understood to have raised it as a way to make the UK more self-sufficient.

Fracking is a hugely controversial method of drilling and the Government halted the process in England at the end of November 2019 after a series of confrontations between shale gas companies and communities, though it has said it could agree to new sites if there was ‘compelling new evidence’ that fracking was safe.

NZSG member Robert Halfon, the former skills minister and current education committee chairman, attacked critics who accused the group of making the climate a culture war battlefront, telling the Guardian: ‘Millions are now being hit desperately hard by the cost of living crisis with heating and fuel bills soaring. We cannot sacrifice any further their ability to cope on the altar of climate change.’

Writing on his blog, Mr Mackinley wrote: ‘Does our dash towards Net Zero give us – (a) Energy security, (b) Affordability, (c) Practical solutions that make life better, (d) Are the vulnerable and lower paid protected and (e) Is there a better way?

‘The current strategy is failing across measures (a) to (d) which leads on to the natural conclusion of (e). Even if renewables could be scaled up and storage of excess electrical energy achievable at a reasonable cost, none of this can happen overnight.

‘Even then, given the risk to the grid as is being seen with severe storms in the north of the country, is reliance on 100 per cent electricity for all our needs for motive power, heating and cooking at all sensible?

‘Gas will be an important part of the mix for many years to come no matter what the pipedreams are.’

Critics of the group have pointed out its  links to the Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF), which has been accused of ‘climate denial’, a charge it denies.

Steve Baker, the former Brexit minister turned high-profile backbench campaigner, is a member of the NZSG and a trustee of the foundation.

Watchdogs are warning of a new surge in energy bills – possibly another £700 a year – if gas supplies are hit by a Russia invasion of Ukraine.

The regulator, Ofgem, told MPs yesterday that current forecasts suggest another increase is likely to come into effect before next winter.

The are fresh calls for the Government to exploit hundreds of oil and gas wells in the North Sea – as well as to revisit the issue of fracking.

There is the equivalent of between ten and 20 billion barrels of oil under the sea, according to Government figures, enough to cover a significant proportion of the UK’s energy needs for two to three decades.

Without a fresh drive to exploit the resources, industry groups warn that UK gas production will fall by three-quarters by 2030, putting the nation’s energy security at risk.

MPs have also called for the moratorium on fracking of shale oil and gas in the north of England and Scotland to be lifted.

The annual bill for a typical household is due to go up from £1,277 to £1,971 from April 1, but some industry analysts are predicting it will go up again to £2,300 from October 1.

In fact, the rise could be substantially higher if Russia invades Ukraine, which would hit gas supplies to Europe and drive up global prices.

Ofgem’s chief executive, Jonathan Brearley, said wholesale gas prices are volatile and it is impossible to make any firm predictions.

But, he said: ‘When you look at the forward prices right now, there is upward pressure in prices still, so you may see a rise in October.

‘It is really hard to say what the price cap will be if Russia invades Ukraine, but…you would see significant rises again in the price that people pay.’

He added: ‘We are not experts in geo-politics but we expect that if Russia invades Ukraine – there is a sanctions regime and that Russia limits gas supplies to Europe.

‘That would drive high price rises and that would ultimately feed through to customers.’

He did not put a figure on it, but said it ‘could be of the scale we have seen before’. If so, that might mean a second increase this year of £700.

Mr Rees-Mogg is not the first minister to suggest a push for more domestic gas production.

Several are said to want attention to be paid to domestic gas production in the North Sea and other areas.

One Cabinet minister told the Telegraph last week that Britain ‘should not be running towards net zero so aggressively’ with the ‘most aggressive targets in the world’.

They added: ‘We’ve stigmatised gas and that’s wrong. Gas has to be part of the answer.’

Britain endured an economic ‘Black Thursday’ last week as the Bank of England warned that households face the worst fall in living standards since records began more than 30 years ago.

The Bank predicted that spending power would tumble by 2 per cent this year – with wage rises failing to keep up with the soaring cost of living.

This would be only the third time that so-called real income has fallen for a calendar year since 1990, the year Margaret Thatcher was forced out of office. Yesterday the central bank put up interest rates from 0.25 per cent to 0.5 per cent.

A leading think tank warned that the number of families in ‘fuel stress’ – spending at least 10 per cent of their income on gas and electricity bills’ will double to five million.

An overnight analysis by the Resolution Foundation of the announcements made yesterday by Ofgem, the Chancellor and the Bank of England found that the poorest fifth of households are still set to experience a major rise in energy costs from April.

The Government’s newly-announced Energy Bill Rebate was rolled out earlier on Thursday to try and ‘cushion the blow’ of rising energy costs – which will be coupled with a 7.25 per cent increase in inflation in April.

The £9 billion package will provide each family with £350 which will include a one-off repayable £200 discount and a £150 rebate on council tax bills.

Policymakers also trimmed their GDP growth forecast for 2022 to 3.75 per cent, down from 5 per cent.

The grim warning came on the day that families were told average energy bills would soar by £693 from April. The jacked-up price cap means dual fuel bills will hit almost £2,000. The cap is expected to rise again in the autumn.

Families are already facing the prospect of a 1.25 per cent hike in National Insurance in April to help pay for the NHS and social care.

See more here: dailymail.co.uk

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