People say all sorts of things about our Energy Secretary. But he does have one superpower that PM Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves seriously lack.
Belief.
Radical, unblinking, planet-sized belief.
Miliband really does believe he’s going to save the world. He calls it his “clean energy superpower mission”.
First, his net zero crusade will convert Britain to the cause of green energy. When the world sees how brilliant we’re doing, they’ll follow.
Planet saved. Job done. Nice work, Ed.
It must be brilliant living in his head. To have that amount of muscle. Unfortunately, he’s about to bump heads with an even more powerful force.
The President of the United States.
Donald Trump takes a very different view of energy. He likes it dirty. The stickier and oilier the better.
And a bit gassy, too.
Anything involving fossil fuels, basically. That the US can “drill, baby drill”.
As the world frets over the climate crisis, these two are at the extreme ends of the debate.
And Ed is spoiling for a fight.
Miliband has vowed to halt new oil and gas drilling in the North Sea. He refuses to defend existing licences in court, driving investment away.
Some of the oil companies giving up are US ones. Notably Texas-based energy giant Apache. It’s set to quit the North Sea by 2029, saying the UK’s windfall tax on energy firms makes working here impossible.
The Tories introduced the Energy Profits Levy (EPL) in 2022 and Reeves hiked it to 38% in her Budget. The total tax rate on oil exploration is now a punitive 78%.
No wonder Apache is seething. And it’s got Trump on its side
Last month, he posted on his Truth social media platform: ”The UK is making a very big mistake. Open up the North Sea. Get rid of windmills!”
That wasn’t the first time Miliband and Trump have crossed swords.
Hours after Trump pulled the US out of the Paris climate agreement in November, Miliband fought back by declaring the green transition “unstoppable”.
Miliband is fighting on a lot of fronts right now. He’s also battling Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves.
They want a third runway at Heathrow. Miliband doesn’t. They want to open up the Rosebank oil field in the North Sea. He wants to block it.
Miliband isn’t just fighting those three. He’s launched a war against the entire UK economy. Rosebank will produce 7% of our oil leading up to 2030.
Shutting that down is economic suicide, given the dire state of our economy. And the fact that UK industry already pays the highest fuel bills in the world.
We need fossil fuels to fund the energy transition, avoid blackouts and boost our energy security.
If Starmer won’t stop Miliband’s green energy mission, Trump will. There can only be one winner here. Miliband is fighting for clean energy, but Trump is happy to play dirty.
