Vants

"You can't factor in a war in Ukraine. You can't factor in a war in Iran." - Miatta Fahnbulleh, Secretary of State for Energy. Yes, you absolutely can factor in geopolitical risk. That is precisely what a national energy security strategy is for, ffs. It isn't the 1990s anymore! Russia and Ukraine have been an energy-security flashpoint for decades. The Strait of Hormuz is one of the best-known strategic chokepoints in the world. Neither is particularly novel! You cannot know exactly when the next crisis will come. That is why you maintain domestic production (North Sea and onshore gas), storage and refining capacity. We've had FOUR AND A HALF YEARS to get our house in order, but done very little to protect ourselves from the increase in global instability. Indeed, we are in a worse position today in terms of energy and industrial resilience than at the beginning of the war in 2022. Since then, we have implemented Ed Miliband's agenda: 1) Maintained the 2019 ban on shale gas. 2) Vandalised the North Sea with high taxes and regulation. 3) Moved to legislate to ban new licences. 4) Failed to develop Rosebank and Jackdaw. 5) Neglected Rough gas storage (which, if upgraded, has the potential for 25–30 days’ worth of storage). 6) Closed down Grangemouth and Lindsey. 7) Switched off Ratcliffe-on-Soar coal power station in September 2024 and approved its demolition in October 2025. 8) INCREASED our reliance on LNG. Add them all up and Britain is needlessly more vulnerable to geopolitical shocks. People need to understand that the energy bills we will be paying this coming winter are not just the price of events abroad. They are also the price of years of complacency and negligence about our energy security within Westminster. @AndrewBowie_MP @HarrietCross_MP @ClaireCoutinho @TomTugendhat @_AndersonStuart @jcartlidgemp @griffitha