His eco-fanaticism is set to cost the UK economy a small fortune, leaving taxpayers to plug the gap.
The UK should be throwing a party right now, on news that we’ve discovered a huge gas field beneath Lincolnshire.
That could supply the country with the energy it desperately needs for the next 10 years.
Labour Chancellor Rachel Reeves drones on about creating growth, while having no idea how to do it.
The Gainsborough Trough field would hand it to her on a plate.
Accountants Deloitte estimates it could add a staggering £112billion to GDP.
It would also deliver around £30billion in desperately needed tax revenues and create tens of thousands of jobs.
It’s a huge stroke of luck and couldn’t have been better timed. But that’s where our luck runs out. Because the UK’s very own Energy Secretary is blocking this brilliant find.
And it’s not the only one he’s blocked.
He’s also fighting to shut down the Rosebank oil and gas field, the largest in the North Sea. This would have produced almost 7% of Britain’s oil leading up to 2030.
And he’s blocking the Jackdaw natural gas field too.
Now he’s gearing up to ban all fracking in the UK, including Gainsborough. Fracking has made the US fabulously rich and saved Europe from Vladimir Putin by delivering reliable oil and gas to these shores.
No other country would scupper its own prospects in this way.
When Britain discovered North Sea gas and oil, it was treated as a magnificent national windfall. It basically saved us in the 1970s and 1980s.
And now?
Miliband plans to leave it untouched while plastering the countryside with pylons and turbines and solar panels.
This isn’t just economically reckless.
It’s ideological madness that will deepen Britain’s energy crisis and force higher taxes on all of us.
Miliband’s decision is based on the flawed assumption that the UK can abandon fossil fuels overnight. Did I say flawed? I meant deranged.
Yes, the climate crisis is real. It demands a grown-up response.
But the reality is that Britain still needs natural gas – for homes, for businesses, and as a back-up for renewable energy when the wind isn’t blowing and the sun isn’t shining.
By blocking domestic gas production, Miliband will force Britain to import more expensive foreign gas.
Often from countries with lower environmental standards and regimes with questionable human rights records. Including Russia, if Donald Trump pushes his dodgy Ukrainian peace deal through.
The UK is already struggling with high energy prices, and this self-inflicted wound will make matters worse.
Rachel Reeves must be tearing her hair out. While wondering which taxes to hike as she battles to plug the gap. Income tax may be the first. She’s also sizing up our Cash ISAs.
She’ll have to hike a lot more to make up for Miliband’s lost £30billion of tax revenues.
Now here’s the real shocker.
Deloitte says the UK’s carbon emissions would be 218million tonnes lower if we exploited Gainsborough rather then relying on imported gas.
Drilling would actually do more for the planet than leaving it in the ground.
This is full-throttle idiocy. We shouldn’t be blocking our own energy finds. We should be blocking Ed Miliband.
