Here are the consequences of my own actions but I didn’t mean in MY constituency.
Mr Hunt – who praised Mr Skidmore’s work as energy minister on climate change – said on Saturday he…
“profoundly” disagrees with his reason for stepping down.
“The point is, I think he is wrong on North Sea oil and gas,” he told the BBC.
“When you have the problems in the Red Sea [with shipping routes under attack], it is very important for energy security that we have domestic sources of that kind of energy as we go into transition.”
It came ahead of a vote in parliament on Monday on the Offshore Petroleum Licensing Bill, which, now passed, will mandate that licences for oil and gas projects in the North Sea are awarded annually.
Mr Skidmore said he could not vote for legislation that.
“clearly promotes the production of new oil and gas” So he resigned..
Here’s what our SW Surrey MP said on Wednesday
“I am bitterly disappointed to learn that the Court of Appeal has today refused permission for any further appeal against the UKOG planning consent for the Loxley gas well outside Dunsfold. I stand ready to provide my assistance and support to local communities in any way possible going forwards.”
Here’s what Waverley’s Leader Paul Follows said:
“YOU and your ludicrous government are the reason this sort of thing has been allowed. Not just here in #Waverley but across the country. YOU continue to say one thing but do another. The continued granting of oil and gas licenses is further proof of this. Part of a VERY long list.“
The Chancellor has been accused of not sufficiently opposing the scheme since taking his cabinet position.
Gas drilling at a site in the Surrey Hills in an area of Outstanding Natural Beauty can now go ahead after the court of appeal ruled that no further attempts to stop the project could be brought to court.
The Loxley site, just outside the village of Dunsfold, has been at the centre of a protracted legal battle over plans by the energy company UK Oil and Gas (Ukog) to sink an exploration well.
Before becoming chancellor, Hunt had previously said the drilling would “create enormous disruption and environmental damage for little if any economic benefit” and attended protests against the scheme. However, since being appointed to cabinet, he has remained quiet.
Hunt is under pressure from the Liberal Democrats in his new constituency of Godalming, Ash Cranleigh & Villages. He has moved from his South West Surrey constituency, where he had a majority of 8,000. The local environmental issue has angered many of his constituents, who have complained about the noise and environmental impacts of drilling for gas near the Surrey Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
Come on Spider in the web. You are more intelligent than the piece you wrote. But your politics have led you to make the hypocritical comment.
North Sea and Loxley are very different locations. Drilling at Loxley is very close to Surrey Hills AONB and with inadequate local roads for heavy traffic.
We do and will need local supplies of fossil fuels for a decade plus to protect us from risky supplies from the insecure Middle East and anyway the short distance from well to use is more environmentally friendly. Supplies should be obtained from wells in more suitable areas than Loxley.
The scale of the climate emergency is such that individual choices will make little difference unless certain collective decisions are taken and acted upon. Rishi Sunak, and Jeremy Hunt however, believe that green measures can be left to the individual conscience. That is why they claimed last September that delaying the end of petrol and diesel car sales would let people choose when to make changes rather than facing unnecessary costs. Licensing new oil and gas fields shows, as former Tory cabinet minister Alok Sharma said, that the government is “not serious about meeting its international climate commitments. We all know that issuing these licences will mean the prouducts will be sold on International markets.