ANDREW BOWIE: This is a small step in the right direction but Labour MUST go further
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Finally, after pressure from industry, the Conservatives and public opinion, Labour have done the right thing by allowing gas to be drilled at Jackdaw.
It would be too much to hope that we would get a decision on the Rosebank oil field, too. It is now two-and-a-half years since Ed Miliband withdrew lawyers from the Court of Session appeal against the decision to block the two fields.
Had my party remained in power, we would have won that appeal. The withdrawal of government lawyers was a political decision made by a Secretary of State – then Ed Miliband – ideologically bent on ridding Britain of fossil fuel production.
There could be 7.5 billion barrels of untapped oil left in the UK North Sea. But we won't know because this Government, so blinded by its desire to be 'a global climate leader', has a ban on all new exploration and maintains a crippling 78 per cent tax on the industry.
Labour accepts that we will be reliant on gas for decades to come. It's just that they prefer this gas to be imported, at higher cost and, most bafflingly, with four times the carbon footprint.
Thousands of jobs are being lost every month as firms move overseas to countries where governments are not hellbent on destroying the industry, taking the skilled workers with them, and their investment.
Finally, after pressure from industry, the Conservatives and public opinion, Labour have done the right thing by allowing gas to be drilled at Jackdaw
Labour's position is untenable. Jackdaw is a small step in the right direction – but they must go further.
Last week, Miliband, now Foreign Secretary, permitted oil exploration in the Sea Lion field near the Falkland Islands – which begs the question: If it is good enough in the South Atlantic, why isn't it good enough for the North Sea?
Similarly, if the Energy Secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh can finally now admit Jackdaw will increase the UK's energy security, do her excuses for continuing to block new licences really hold water?
This Government's energy policy is riddled with contradictions as ideology clashes with the reality.
At a time of such geopolitical uncertainty, with more than 80 per cent of UK households relying on gas heating, it is in the national interest to maximise our own North Sea resources and reduce our reliance on expensive, dirtier imports.
Andrew Bowie is Conservative MP for West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine.
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