Rishi Sunak’s net zero targets are ‘path to ruin’, says leading Tory MP

By Paul Homewood

 

 

The rush to net zero presents a severe threat to industries that have long been the lifeblood of our economy.
 
Grangemouth Refinery should be celebrating its centenary year in 2024, as Britain’s longest producing oil refinery. Instead, skilled workers at the Falkirk plant face months of worry, after the owners announced in November they will convert the site into an import terminal by 2025 with the loss of 400 jobs.
 
Instead of adding value to the economy and providing well-paid jobs to British workers – as well as supplying 70 per cent of Scotland’s petrol demand – we will instead ship fuel from abroad, supporting foreign jobs whilst further hammering the UK’s balance of payments. All the while doing nothing to reduce global emissions.
 
These developments are payback after years of neglect. Whilst the Offshore Petroleum Licensing Bill is a welcome yet belated attempt to maximise our own resources, it comes after clobbering North Sea operators with debilitating windfall taxes that cratered investment.

Our attitude towards energy security has bordered on dangerous indifference.

 
By failing to develop shale gas or rushing the closure of reliable fossil-fuelled power stations, we have lumbered ourselves with some of the world’s highest power costs, whilst subsidising intermittent renewables. And we impose some of the world’s highest carbon costs through the UK Emissions Trading Scheme on our industry, whose main competitors in China, India and the Middle East operate under no such burdens.
 
Furthermore, Grangemouth’s owners pointed directly to the “decline in demand for the type of fuels we produce” as key to their decision to close. The ideological obsession for battery vehicles at all costs can therefore be directly tied to the survival of British industry. Indeed, responding to a parliamentary debate on Grangemouth recently, ministers seemed happy to embrace the “managed decline” of a once proud sector, without considering the ramifications for our standard of living if the EV utopia fails to materialise.
 
This shameful acceptance of decline from a Conservative government would previously have been unthinkable. The only thing that can be said for the Government’s approach is our opponent’s policies offer even more insanity: “crocodile tears” from the SNP and Greens after years of undermining Scottish industry, and Labour’s eco-zealotry amounting to unfunded billions for the impossible promise of being a “clean energy superpower” by 2030.
 
Ask people most affected by the “green transition” where their preferences lie, however, and common sense prevails. When given a choice between energy independence or net zero, a recent survey of Scottish voters by pollsters Redfield & Wilton showed 58 per cent prioritising energy security, more than double those wanting net zero.
 
It is time we accept the same realism as these voters. We cannot burden industries with excessive costs that foreign competitors avoid, whilst expecting them to continue operating in the UK. Nor can we recklessly pursue a transition to EVs by diktat, which ordinary consumers do not want, on the chimera of “green jobs” tomorrow at the expense of real jobs today.
 
The closure of Grangemouth Refinery is a tragedy, but it is also a wake-up call. I could write in similar terms about the proposed closure of our remaining blast furnaces on the back of high energy costs and more net zero zealotry leaving the UK as the only G20 country without the ability to manufacture virgin steel. Do we continue down this path to ruin? Or do we finally wake up and prioritise true British energy security?

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/01/29/craig-mackinlay-rishi-sunak-net-zero-green-agenda-decline/?mc_cid=fa1661145b&mc_eid=4961da7cb1