Global warming, climate change, all these things are just a dream come true for politicians. I deal with evidence and not with frightening computer models because the seeker after truth does not put his faith in any consensus. The road to the truth is long and hard, but this is the road we must follow. People who describe the unprecedented comfort and ease of modern life as a climate disaster, in my opinion have no idea what a real problem is.
Rachel Reeves will face a bill of up to £11bn for Ed Miliband’s North Sea shutdown, an energy executive has warned.
Oil industry will claim tax rebates for dismantling platforms in rush to quit UK waters, energy boss says
Rachel Reeves will face a bill of up to £11bn for Ed Miliband’s North Sea shutdown, an energy executive has warned. The Telegraph has the story.
Brian Gilvary, the chairman of Ineos Energy, said Labour’s policies were creating an “extraordinary” bill for taxpayers because energy companies can claim tax rebates for shutting down and dismantling platforms.
When oil and gas companies decommission platforms and pipelines, they can claim about 25pc of the costs back from the Treasury.
These costs were expected to be spread over decades, but Labour’s windfall taxes and drilling bans mean companies are rushing to leave the North Sea – meaning accelerated demand for tax rebates, Mr Gilvary said.
“The 78pc tax rate imposed on UK oil and gas means that right now the industry is in a flight from the North Sea and towards decommissioning,” he said.
“The total costs are estimated at about £44bn and taxpayers will be liable for about £11bn of that, which is an extraordinary amount.”
Ineos operates the Breagh platform in the North Sea, 60 miles east of Teesside. It also runs the massive Forties Pipeline System which carries oil and gas from around 80 offshore fields back to UK shores.
Such infrastructure is vital to the UK’s energy security as well as generating billions of pounds for the Treasury, but the windfall taxes imposed by the last Conservative government and raised again under Labour have changed the economics of the North Sea.
Upgrading of ports is, of course, yet another cost associated with offshore wind. As for green hydrogen, carbon capture and gigafactories, the money will in all likelihood be wasted, and certainly won’t benefit the public.
Labour’s plan to set up the Great British Energy company at a cost of £8.3bn is just part of its wider Green Plan, which is still included in its website:
According to Sky News, it comes with a cost of £23.7bn over five years, equivalent to £870 for every household in the country. But what will we get for the money?
In addition to Great British Energy, which cannot be funded by increases in windfall taxes, as claimed by Labour, we are promised these goodies:
Upgrading of ports is, of course, yet another cost associated with offshore wind. As for green hydrogen, carbon capture and gigafactories, the money will in all likelihood be wasted, and certainly won’t benefit the public.
Transitioning the steel industry will involve wasting billions so that efficient processes are replaced by hydrogen fuelled ones. But the cost of hydrogen is so great that whatever is left of our steel industry will be unable to compete with international rivals.
This list, together with GBE, costs £15.6bn, so the remaining £8.1bn will presumably be allocated to insulation schemes:
Free insulation has been on offer for so many years that it is hard to see there are many homes left who have not had some. But the plan appears to be to hand billions to local councils to spend on council houses.
But why should taxpayers fund this? Let the councils themselves pay for it, and recover the expense by putting up rents.
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In any event, the amount is tiny, and will make very little difference to the UK’s energy consumption. For example, £8 billion would pay for just 800,000 houses at £10000 a time, the sort of amount of money that might make a difference.
And even that would not save £500 a year, given that annual heating bills for the sort of small houses involved are probably little more than £1000. Labour’s promise also implies that everybody will benefit from this saving.
But the most ridiculous claim of all is that “hundreds of thousands of jobs” would be created. At £50000 a job, you’d be looking at a cost of tens of billions a year. And you can double that amount when the cost of materials, travel etc are added on. Quite clearly this money is not on the table.
By the way, the document, which although undated must have been written last year, states:
As we know, this claim from Carbon Brief was only true for a few days.
But then it goes on to claim that energy bills will fall by £1400, based on the high prices still prevalent last year:
It is fraudulent for Labour to continue linking this report prominently on the website, without any qualification that the costings are no longer correct.
Indeed, Labour’s renewable plans will inevitably force up energy bills even faster than under Tory policies. This is what labour promise:
Based on current market prices, the extra wind and solar power planned will be subsidised to the tune of about £13 billion a year. That’s £500 per household, on top of the cost of the Green Plan.
The insane obsession with floating wind power alone would cost £4 billion a year in subsidies, given its strike price of £244/MWh.
Meanwhile, Labour clearly have no plan for when the wind does not blow and the sun does not shine.
Labour’s proposed North Sea tax increases would drive out investment, destroy up to 100,000 jobs and cost the Treasury £20bn in lost revenues, energy experts have warned.
Energy experts warn plans to increase windfall taxes will cost far more than they raise.
Labour’s proposed North Sea tax increases would drive out investment, destroy up to 100,000 jobs and cost the Treasury £20bn in lost revenues, energy experts have warned.
Analysis by investment bank Stifel suggests Sir Keir Starmer’s plans to increase and extend windfall taxes on the industry will cost the country far more than they raise. The Telegraph has the story.
A separate report by Welligence, an oil and gas analyst, said key UK offshore operators such as Harbour Energy, the UK’s largest oil and gas producer, and TotalEnergies had already cut back investment and others were now likely to follow.
Under the new proposals, Labour hopes to raise an extra £11bn from the UK’s oil and gas industry by increasing and extending the windfall tax, with the funds invested in “clean power to cut bills for families.”
However, Chris Wheaton, an oil and gas analyst with Stifel, warned in a report: “We estimate the UK will lose £20bn in tax revenues, with maybe 100,000 jobs at risk, both directly and indirectly employed, and a £40bn reduction in investment between now and 2030.”
Sir Keir Starmer has proposed adding 3pc to existing offshore production taxes, slashing investment allowances, banning new drilling licences and extending the windfall tax beyond its current cut-off date of 2028.
Labour said: “Together, these changes would raise £10.8bn over the next five years from 2024-25 to help fund the Green Prosperity Plan.”
However, Mr Wheaton said the overall economic impact would be negative.
He warned: “The uncertainty created by threatening new windfall taxes is as bad as the tax itself. The tax is already forcing cancellation of investments. For example TotalEnergies have cancelled drilling plans at the Elgin and Franklin fields [in the North Sea], and Apache has cancelled investments at its Beryl fields.
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