Miliband: You’re “100% Wrong” If You Think North Sea Will Cut Energy Bills
New drilling in the North Sea will not bring down energy bills, Ed Miliband has claimed, saying it will “make no difference” to prices and anyone who believes this is “100% wrong” – despite the fact it would dramatically boost domestic supply and cut reliance on expensive imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG). The Telegraph has more.
The Energy Secretary said ramping up efforts to extract oil and gas from UK waters would “make no difference” to household energy costs, stressing that anyone who believes this is “100% wrong”.
He told the BBC: “We’ve taken a pragmatic and, I believe, the right approach on the North Sea, which is to say we’re not going to issue licences to explore new fields, but we want existing oil and gas fields to be kept open for their lifetime.
“The only way we get energy security is with our mission for clean power.
“There’ll be some people who come and say the answer is ‘if we only drilled, we’d lower bills’. They’re 100% wrong.
“However much drilling we do in the North Sea, it doesn’t lower energy bills by one penny because prices are set on the international market.”
Miliband has sought to defend Labour’s ban on new North Sea drilling after Denmark reversed plans to close its 20-plus offshore fields by the early 2040s.
It made the move after warning that cutting fossil fuel production could undermine Europe’s energy security.
This has piled more pressure on Miliband, whose Net Zero agenda has been blamed for Britain paying some of the highest energy prices in the world.
Rachel Reeves has since tried to tackle high energy bills by overhauling green levies, which led to a fall in Ofgem’s latest price cap.
The regulator announced on Wednesday that annual energy bills will fall by £117 from April, which is less than the £150 discount Reeves had promised late last year.
Worth reading in full.
The Daily Sceptic‘s Ben Pile says Miliband is wrong “because there is no such thing as ‘international markets'”:
That’s why there’s as much as a 400% difference between the price of gas in the USA versus the UK. If there is scarcity in European markets (including the UK), it is because most of Europe followed the UK in restricting or even prohibiting gas extraction. This problem did momentarily surface in the USA at one point under Obama. And to stop the problem of prices rising and impacting industry, he simply restricted exports for a time. And that’s a second and third reason Miliband is wrong. We could do what Obama did, allow increased production here (including fracking, as Obama did, despite his green credentials) and keep gas in UK markets through export tariffs etc. Most of Europe meanwhile, especially Germany, increased its dependence on imports. Moreover, the Treasury would benefit from tariffs, whether or not they were increased to punish exports.
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Won’t someone rid us of this turbulent buffoon??
Sadly, under present circs, only 2TK can do that; and The Kneeler probably wants to keep Milibrain in post as Negative Energy Secretary so that he can point to someone in his Cabinet who is more ignorant, deceitful and incompetent than himself.
I dunno, there is a whole range of them such as Nandy Pandy.
Net zero Miliband now!
Did anyone ever tell him, during his formative years, that he was just… wrong?
Miliband is just a bullshitter and he certainly knows that himself.
A Marxist its genetic, his Parents were of the elite let them eat cake Marxist class, the Apple does not fall far from the tree. Milliband would see thousands die and see it as a mere statistic in his quest to be the God like saviour of the Planet. Because the Planet really needs an arrogant, nothing special human to protect it.
I think you’re making a mistake by assuming that Miliband is serious about what he claims to do. I think he’s someone who has been assigned a certain task he damn well knows to be harmful to the people in the UK and make them pay through the nose for that.
In my opinion, it’s very unlikely that he doesn’t know that markets are places where prices are negotiated based on supply and demand and that increasing the supply of some commodity will thus cause it to become cheaper.
I would love to be a fly on the wall as Miliband and Kathryn Porter had a head to head. —-This will never happen though because these UN parasites make sure a shield is around them so they cannot be exposed as bullshiters. They will stand at podiums and spout their eco socialist bullshit but would never allow someone like Kathryn anywhere near that podium
Presumably if we drill in the North Sea there will also be employment for British people and taxes for the Government.
Absolutely correct and also if we use the fuel ourselves there will be a saving of precious foreign currency or if we sell the output there will be an influx of foreign currency from the sales. It seems a no brainer!!
But they have a much bigger globalist agenda on the go. Which is to pander to the UN and WEF and lower our standard of living by pricing us out of using energy because the UN Agenda says “The lifestyles of the affluent middle classes, with central heating, air conditioning, travel in private cars, and high meat intake is unsustainable”, and so we are all to make do with less of everything and that all starts with expensive unreliable energy and much less of it.
More lies from Miliband. Expensive energy is his policy, along with deindustrialisation. It’s all going exactly to plan. It’s treason.
No Miliband, you’re wrong if you think that the North Sea won’t reduce energy bills.
He will ensure that bills go up.
He’s not bothered about economics, or people.
The y woudn’t reduce because Milliband would add extra taxes on us and the producers to prove himself right
If Miliband opens his mouth to speak, assume the opposite is true and you won’t be far wrong. —-If Miliband says “white” then chose “black”. –If he says “up” then chose “down”
He may well end up being right because his government will distort the energy market so that his prediction comes true
The energy market has been distorted since the climate change act in 2008, and guess who gave us that? —–Yep Miliband.—- Government have interfered so heavily in the energy market that it is no longer actually a market. It is an ideological tool.
Whatever Kommissar Miliband spouts, believe the opposite…
…100% wrong means 100% right
…Energy security means energy insecurity
…Clean power means dirty lies
The Energy Secretary said ramping up efforts to extract oil and gas from UK waters would “make no difference” to household energy costs, stressing that anyone who believes this is “100% wrong.”
Merely extracting more oil and gas from UK waters would obviously not stop Miliband from driving up household energy bills via subsidy schemes for so-called renewables and hence, that’s obiously correct. This oil and gas could be used to lower household energy bills in the UK but the Milied would never do that.
Minibrain is living the dream whilst the public endure a nightmare.
So if prices are set on the international market – how come we 4 times what they do in the U.S. ? I smell something unpleasant!
Energy bills will fall by a remarkably precise average of £117 per year, enough for perhaps two decent meals out for two, only because Rachel from Accounts is removing the green levy from energy and adding it to general taxation. So the net benefit to users will only accrue to non taxpayers and be funded by those who pay tax. In other words, another stealth tax on the better off. Mind you, listening to her on the news makes me wonder if she even understands what she is saying herself.
Like so much of this government’s policy it’s based on the assumption that we won’t notice what they’re doing, that we’re too stupid to understand even if we do notice, and that they know what’s best for us.
Rachel Thieves has only had junior admin roles and knows nothing about economics since all her ‘growth’ measures result in businesses closing or cutting jobs, increased youth unemployment and negative growth.
Promised saving has been reduced because while both gas costs have reduced and electricity unit cost has also reduced, the electricity standing charge has increased…again due to Net Zero. And of course we have three more energy price cap changes to come in the next 12 months so the £117 could all be gone.
Miliband is right. Our bills are so high because of Miliband’s policy add-ons, not the price of gas. Changing where the gas comes from will not change the price of gas or the electricity generated using that gas.
What would change is a big boost to the economy due to the gas and oil industry coming back to the UK to exploit the large reserves still left in the North Sea. But both the UK and the Scottish governments seem oblivious to that.
“anyone who believes this is “100% wrong” ….
And who knows better about being 100% wrong!
Government are forever warning and threatening us about “misinformation”. But most of it actually comes from them. There is NO CLIMATE EMERGENCY. It is simply the excuse for being aligned with the Word Government People at the UN and WEF. ——-Everything that comes out of the mouths of Miliband and every other phoney planet saving con artist is a bare faced lie, but as someone once said “The people get the politicians they deserve”.—- If we are going to be so utterly thick as to elect parasites like this then what do we really expect?
“100% wrong” is a meaningless qualification because wrongness is not a measurable quantity. Anything is either wrong or not wrong.
In a functional country Miliband would be in a padded room with soft toys in an institution.