People say all sorts of things about our Energy Secretary. But he does have one superpower that PM Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves seriously lack.
Belief.
Radical, unblinking, planet-sized belief.
Miliband really does believe he’s going to save the world. He calls it his “clean energy superpower mission”.
First, his net zero crusade will convert Britain to the cause of green energy. When the world sees how brilliant we’re doing, they’ll follow.
Planet saved. Job done. Nice work, Ed.
It must be brilliant living in his head. To have such power. Unfortunately, he’s about to bump heads with an even more powerful force.
The President of the United States.
Donald Trump takes a very different view of energy. He likes it dirty. The stickier and oilier the better.
And a bit gassy, too.
Anything involving fossil fuels, basically. Anything the US can “drill, baby drill”.
As the world frets over the climate crisis, these two are at the extreme ends of the spectrum.
And Ed is spoiling for a fight.
Miliband has vowed to halt new oil and gas drilling in the North Sea. He refuses to defend existing licences in court, driving investment away.
Some of the oil companies giving up are US ones. Notably Texas-based energy giant Apache. It’s set to quit the North Sea by 2029, saying the UK’s windfall tax on energy firms makes working here impossible.
The Tories introduced the 25% Energy Profits Levy (EPL) in May 2022 after energy firms recorded bumper profits under the energy shock.
Reeves hiked it from 35% to 38% in her Budget. The total tax rate on oil companies is now a punitive 78%. No wonder Apache wants out.
Miliband is happy to see it go. And Trump? Less so.
He’s already made clear what he thinks of the UK’s green transition.
In January, he posted on his Truth social media platform: ”The UK is making a very big mistake. Open up the North Sea. Get rid of windmills!”
Trump hates windmills. Miliband loves them.
And he’ll fight to the death for them. His political death.
Hours after Trump pulled the US out of the Paris climate agreement, Miliband heroically declared the green transition “unstoppable”.
That’s fighting talk.
The problem is that Ed is fighting on a lot of fronts right now. He’s also battling Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves.
They want a third runway at Heathrow. Miliband doesn’t.
Starmer and Reeves want to open up the Rosebank oil and gas field in the North Sea. Miliband wants to block it.
Ed isn’t just fighting those three. He’s launched a war against the entire UK economy. Rosebank will produce 7% of our oil leading up to 2030.
Shutting that down is economic suicide, given the dire state of our economy. And the fact that UK industry already faces the most expensive fuels in the world.
We need fossil fuels to fund the energy transition. Not to mention avoid blackouts. And boost our energy security.
If Starmer won’t stop Miliband’s green energy mission, Trump will. Miliband fights clean, but Trump plays dirty.