It’s impossible to predict UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s next move on the environment, so often does he seemingly flip his position on decarbonisation. But the latest turn, which will see Britain build new gas power stations, is more important than most in that it serves as a tacit admission of the fact that the net zero agenda is not sustainable.
Energy Security Secretary Claire Coutinho could not have put this more clearly:
There are no two ways about it. Without gas backing up renewables, we face the genuine prospect of blackouts.
Sunak himself added that “when the sun isn’t shining and the wind isn’t blowing, this is how we will keep your lights on and your bills down.” He and his top team are clearly uncomfortable with revealing that renewables are not reliable enough to be the UK’s main source of energy, so instead simply said that gas will be the “insurance policy Britain needs … while we deliver our net zero transition.”
Author Steve Milloy joked that “no one has ever announced new wind and solar farms to ease the risk of blackouts.”
It is not yet clear how many new gas power stations will be built, alongside the 32 that already exist. Or, indeed, how these will line up with the pledge to phase out fossil fuels by 2050.
The new announcement is made all the more confusing by Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s decision in last week’s budget to extend a heavy tax on oil and gas firms. Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross, who had put cutting the levy as his “central demand,” described the move as “deeply disappointing.”
The building of new gas stations will please voters who are sceptical about the drive to net zero, but as much as he tries to pretend he isn’t, Sunak is still a fully-fledged supporter of this movement.
In his article announcing the new stations, the prime minister insisted that “we should be proud that we are on track to meet our net zero targets,” with the government celebrating in a separate release that “no other major economy has done more when it comes to cutting emissions.”
But now, every time Sunak talks up the glories of net zero, he can be reminded by his critics of his own serious concerns about blackouts in a renewable-only energy system.
