Petrol and diesel costs rise the most in four years
The chancellor of the Exchequer, John Healey, focused on the new energy wealth fund in his remarks:
I want Britain’s energy wealth to spark a new wave of clean power to work for the British people.
Since North Sea gas and oil were discovered decades ago, the benefit of our existing nation’s natural resources have not been turned into the long-term investment our country needs.
Britain is going to need gas for decades to come, as even the climate change committee recognises. The choice is not between gas and no gas, but between gas produced in British waters and gas shipped in from abroad at higher cost and with higher emissions.
But while we should use what we have, the north sea is a declining basin, and we need to transition to homegrown clean power. Britain’s always-on electricity should come from new clean nuclear, both gigawatt-scale reactors and small modular reactors that can be sited in far more places than their bigger cousins.
