'Won’t save them money, but may rock their worlds.'
As the Church of England announces that in a net zero push it is to ditch about £100 million of investments in oil companies including Shell and BP, accusing them of not doing enough to tackle climate change, Jacob Rees-Mogg droned on about taking on climate target commitments.
Speaking on his ‘State of the Nation’ GB News’ show this week, the Tory MP argued that it is time to take on net zero and reduce energy bills.
“We have the resources to become energy independent for the benefit of the British public. Let us not put more costs on people who are already suffering from the cost-of-living crisis,” said the former Brexit minister.
“What we need to do is scrap the ban on new petrol and diesel cars, reverse the upcoming enforcement of heat pumps in new buildings, give more licenses, as we are going to do, for North Sea oil drilling, lift the fracking moratorium. If we can have local supplies that helps our security and will lower prices, we have the resources to be energy independent like that United States did, to the benefit of the British public,” he added.
The comments weren’t well received.
“Frack off – if you want to start then do it on your land in your backyard. It takes 18 months to 5 years to be productive, there are no guarantees, and we sell in the world market so does nothing on prices. Just speak for your fossil fuel masters,” said environmental campaigner Dave Lawrence.
Political commentator Marina Purkiss told Rees-Mogg that he should inform his viewers that there ‘isn’t enough shale gas to make any substantial difference,’ and even it there was, it would have to be sold on the global market. She added that he needs to tell viewers how fracking caused daily earthquakes at the UK’s only active site.
“So won’t save them money, but may rock their worlds,” Purkiss continued.
Former Countdown presenter and vocal Tory critic, Carol Vorderman, made her thoughts known, tweeting: “TODAY we’re warned of passing the critical +1.5C increase with catastrophic consequences. This greedy idiot Jacob Rees Mogg bangs on about fracking. Both Mogg and his donor Crispin Odey (under investigation – sexual harassment) have huge investments in FRACKING COMPANIES.”
Criticism of net zero is rife among right-wingers and is propped up by the climate sceptic press.
Just this week, LFF reported on how the Sun paid for a poll on Net Zero but downplayed the key finding – there is a huge cross-party support for the government commitment to ensure the UK reduces its greenhouse gas emissions by 100 percent from 1990 levels by 2050.
Gabrielle Pickard-Whitehead is a contributing editor to Left Foot Forward
Image credit: Twitter screen grab
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