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More North Sea collapses are coming unless Labour ditches its toxic energy policy

Reeves must scrap or replace windfall tax to slow the decline in Scottish industry

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/10/28/more-north-sea-collapses-coming-labour-ditches-toxic-energy/

British industry is now in terminal decline, killed by expensive energy

Britain looks set to become not just the first country to industrialise, but the first to completely de-industrialise

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/10/26/british-manufacturing-decline-energy-acceleration/

Thank You very much, Dumbly. Let us hope common sense and logic start trumping ideology.

Ministers on alert as North Sea supplier scrambles to avert collapse

UK taxpayers may need to ‘pick up the tab’ as Petrofac is put on the brink of administration

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/10/24/ministers-on-alert-as-north-sea-supplier-scrambles-to-avert/

Https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/10/24/ministers-on-alert-as-north-sea-supplier-scrambles-to-avert/?recomm_id=c9d77a9d-c38d-4d14-915f-4f7c293d8099

He surely isn't. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/10/24/is-ed-miliband-listening-to-labour-mps-over-north-sea-oil/

Https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/10/24/miliband-warned-1000-oil-gas-jobs-lost-monthly-2030/

Petrofac on the brink after wind client cancels big contract

Oil and energy services group says TenneT, the Dutch electricity grid operator, has terminated a €13 billion contract for six offshore wind farms

2000 UK jobs at stake

https://www.thetimes.com/business-money/companies/article/petrofac-on-the-brink-after-wind-client-cancels-big-contract-hsm0tjv5r

Wood Group will be taken over at a firesale price by Sidara....

The good news keeps coming.

Ed Miliband’s mad net zero crusade has suffered a fatal blow

Starmer should ditch his fanatical Energy Secretary and adopt the Conservative Party’s Cheap Power Plan to cut electricity bills

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/10/23/ed-milibands-mad-net-zero-crusade-has-suffered-a-fatal-blow/

IEA's track record is NOT impressive, Sekforde. I suggest you download the Q2 2025 report and read the oil section : https://blog.gorozen.com/blog/natural-resource-market-commentary

When each and everyone predicts a glut....https://oilprice.com/Energy/Crude-Oil/Glut-Hysteria-Clashes-with-Missing-Oil-Barrels.html

(continued)

It warned that a fixed 2030 target “risks locking in higher bills and systemic inefficiencies for years to come” by straining supply chains and potentially adding more renewable capacity than the system can currently manage without higher costs.

It said that while decarbonisation should be the goal, the 2030 clean power mandate “tied rigidly to a date” should be reworked in favour of a more flexible approach that is constantly reassessed in line with costs and risks.

“The Clean Power 2030 mission should therefore be reframed as Cheaper Power 2030, Net Zero 2050,” the report said.

Sir Tony Blair’s think-tank has called on the UK government to rethink its election manifesto pledge to decarbonise the power system by 2030, and focus on bringing down electricity costs.

The Tony Blair Institute for Global Change (TBI) warned the policy risked pushing up energy bills in the rush to build new wind and solar farms, and said high electricity prices have become a drag on the economy.

“Clean, abundant electricity is no longer just a climate goal — it is fast becoming a prerequisite for economic leadership,” it said in a report published on Thursday. Blair served as Labour prime minister from 1997 to 2007.

The intervention is likely to add to pressure on energy secretary Ed Miliband by underlining fears over the costs of his plans to rewire the grid, which have been raised by his political opponents.

The report also follows criticism of the UK’s pursuit of net zero carbon emissions in April by the institute, of which Blair is the founder and chief executive, prompting Starmer to defend the policy and TBI to issue a statement saying it supported the 2050 net zero targets.

The Conservatives and Reform UK have both promised to scrap Britain’s legally-binding goal of cutting carbon emissions across the economy to net zero by 2050, arguing it was imposed by “zealots” and is worsening the cost of living crisis.

The target was put in place in 2019 under the then-Conservative government.

Prime minister Sir Keir Starmer tried to move Miliband to the housing department at last month’s reshuffle but the energy secretary rejected the attempt.

The Labour government has pledged to decarbonise the electricity system by 2030 and vowed to bring bills down by £300 a year by the same date.

But critics warn that it is not possible to achieve both goals at the same time given the investment required and the need to keep gas-fired power plants running for times when there is little sun and wind.

The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero said: “This report rightly recognises that clean power is the right choice for this country. This government’s clean power mission is exactly how we will deliver cheaper power and bring down bills for good.”

It added that the government was focused on its mission to tackle the affordability crisis “driven by our dependence on fossil fuel markets”.

The UK’s industrial electricity prices, including taxes, are higher than competitors such as Germany, France and China, while typical domestic bills of currently £1,755 per year have risen by several hundred pounds since 2021.

TBI said electricity bills were high due to a combination of subsidies to support emerging renewable energy projects, the daily costs of balancing the network, and the role of gas in setting electricity prices.

Thank you for a very well articulated reply to Sekforde, Tamovv and Hunbah.

Britain more reliant than ever on foreign electricity imports

Latest figures represent setback to Miliband’s domestically generated energy promise

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/10/20/britain-more-reliant-than-ever-foreign-electricity-imports/

Britain is more reliant than ever on importing power from abroad in a blow to Ed Miliband’s plans to rely on “homegrown energy”, new figures slow.

Electricity imported from neighbouring countries such as France, via undersea interconnectors, accounted for a record 16pc of consumption in the first nine months of this year. The figures come after Mr Miliband pledged to overhaul the electricity system so that domestically generated wind and solar power provides the bulk of the country’s energy.

......

Revealed: 15pc drop in carbon emissions caused by industrial decline

Conservative MP says new decarbonisation figures ‘are frankly staggering’

Britain’s declining carbon emissions have been fuelled by the shutdown of more than 100 businesses and factories, it has emerged.

Up to 15pc of the UK’s reduction in greenhouse gas emissions over the past two decades was a direct consequence of the closure of energy-intensive factories such as steelworks, according to data from the UK Emissions Trading Scheme.

The analysis – commissioned by Nick Timothy, the shadow energy minister – found that closures have sped up since 2019 after net zero targets were introduced by the government.

Industrial greenhouse gas emissions plunged 9pc last year alone – but this was largely due to steelworks closing down rather than efficiency improvements, the research found.

Mr Timothy said: “Data from the UK Emissions Trading Scheme show the decline of British industry with around 116 industrial closures linked to falling emissions. This represents a 15pc drop since 2004 with the majority of closures coming after 2019 when net zero by 2050 became law.

“Over 30,000 jobs have been lost to these closures related to decarbonisation. Overall emissions fell by 65% over 11 years due in part to a fall in power generation from domestic industries.”

Success in cutting greenhouse gas emissions is often lauded by supporters of the Government’s net zero policy, with the UK claiming to have cut them from about 800 million tonnes of CO2 in 1990 to 371 million tonnes last year.

But much of this reduction is linked to industrial closures, Mr Timothy said.

This is confirmed by the latest government statistics, published by Ed Miliband’s Department for Energy Security and Net Zero in July, which found industrial energy consumption has fallen 45pc since 2000.

Oil and electricity consumption have also dropped sharply, with industrial electricity demand falling to its lowest level last year since 1998.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/10/20/15pc-drop-carbon-emissions-caused-industrial-decline/

British taxpayers are being asked to make a colossal investment in carbon capture

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/10/19/milibands-22bn-co2-vision-risks-crashing-into-reality/

The headlong rush to net zero must stop before we are all ruined

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2025/10/19/net-zero-must-be-dropped-in-favour-of-jobs/

It is clear that one of the most pro-growth measures the Government could take would be to stop its rush towards net zero by 2050, and instead to reconsider its policy entirely. The supposed economic benefits are disintegrating in the face of reality, and the costs appear to be rising on a near-continuous basis.

Earlier this week electricity suppliers warned that green levies are set to increase household energy bills by £300 per year. Even if the wholesale price of electricity halves, this would still be a net rise of £150.

Now we learn that the supposed “clean energy jobs boom” promised by Energy Secretary Ed Miliband is to be achieved in large part by rebranding plumbers, electricians and welders as “clean energy workers”. Jürgen Maier, the boss of GB Energy, meanwhile, believes it could take 20 years to create the 1,000 jobs at its Scottish headquarters promised by Sir Keir Starmer.

Simply renaming jobs is a nonsense. Calling something by a different name does not change its fundamental nature, and if the Government is going this far it may as well redefine gas, coal and oil as “aged biomass” and announce its net zero targets met. It would, after all, be far cheaper than the alternative.

Yet regrettably the Government appears to be persisting in its course even as the evidence mounts against it, again looking to play a sleight of hand in order to sell the project to the public. Just as the answer to a lack of green jobs is a hasty recategorisation, one answer to the prospect of people balking at the higher energy bills implied by decarbonisation reportedly under consideration may be to shift the costs from bills to taxes.

Yet shifting the burden of costs does not address the core problem, just as shifting emissions from Britain to exporting nations does not address climate change: we appear to be creating a more expensive energy system in the pursuit of a cheaper one, and quite probably a less reliable one to boot. At some stage, the real world implications of this approach must surely be considered.

Ed Miliband has been ridiculed over plans to rebrand plumbers, electricians and welders as “clean energy” workers.

The Energy Secretary said new trainees in these trades should see themselves as critical to the campaign to drive Britain towards net zero.

Mr Miliband said: “Communities have long been calling out for a new generation of good industrial jobs. The clean energy jobs boom can answer that call – and today we publish a landmark national plan to make it happen.”

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/10/19/miliband-plans-rebrand-plumbers-clean-energy-workers/

Ed Miliband’s pledge to bring down household energy bills is as good as dead after it was rubbished by some of the industry’s most influential figures in devastating fashion.

It seems set to join a growing list of unfulfilled, exaggerated and unachievable manifesto promises made by Labour in its desperate bid for power, whether that be a commitment to smash the boat gangs, targets on NHS waiting lists or welfare reform.

Everyone remembers Miliband’s guarantee to reduce energy bills by £300 by 2030, not least because it was one of Labour’s flagship promises.

However, Miliband’s promise of lower energy costs has been on the rocks for months as it becomes ever more apparent that far from being the solution to eye-watering bills, his green energy scramble is actually part of the problem.

Much to his embarrassment, Miliband’s pledge was given a thorough roasting in Parliament on Wednesday at the hands of folk who understand how the energy market works better than anyone.

As a slew of energy bosses queued to warn of higher bills, the hearing highlighted the absurdity of Labour’s vow to magically make bills more affordable by building yet more wind turbines.

The revelations from the stinging energy select committee session leave Miliband’s credibility in tatters – if it wasn’t already, of course.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/10/17/milibands-cheap-energy-bills-pledge-is-officially-in-tatter/