SNP blocking Cambo f ield ‘will drive up energy bills’

FAMILY fuel bills will soar if nicola Sturgeon succeeds with her bid to block the Cambo oil field and other new north Sea developments, the Energy Secretary has warned.

Greg Hands said stopping new oil and gas projects would lead to soaring energy costs and damage the environment because Britain would be more reliant on imports with higher emissions.

He also asked the SnP Government to reverse its ‘ideological opposition’ to nuclear power and instead support the industry’s renaissance.

The UK’s energy strategy includes plans to build up to eight nuclear plants to meet around a quarter of projected electricity demand by 2050 but none will be in Scotland because of the SnP’s opposition.

Miss Sturgeon has said she will not support Cambo, west of Shetland, or other new north Sea fields, because of the climate emergency.

Mr Hands said: ‘The UK having its own capability is something that our European partners and allies look on, with the exception of norway which is obviously in a better position than we are, with envy at the fact the UK is able to produce 50 per cent of its own gas.

‘So I would say we need to make sure that we take good care of the resource we’ve got, to invest in the resource we’ve got at the moment, whilst still making the transition.’

He added that ‘the last thing we want to be doing at the moment is importing more expensive, volatile-priced hydrocarbons’, especially when there are fears about relying on supplies from ‘unfriendly countries’.

On the impact of Cambo and other new north Sea oil and gas fields not going ahead, he said: ‘Well, it would almost certainly drive up the price of energy, and it would almost certainly be bad for energy security and is likely to be bad for emissions.’

He added: ‘The logic of closing down the north Sea... would be importing more, and importing more would be more expensive, bad for energy security and bad for the climate as well because it would drive up emissions because imported gas has got higher implied emissions.’

The Torness plant in East Lothian is Scotland’s only nuclear power station.

Mr Hands said that he would try to encourage Scottish ministers to change their approach ‘by persuasion’.

The Scottish Government said it was ‘absolutely clear in our opposition to the building of new traditional nuclear fission energy plants in Scotland under current technologies’.

‘Take good care of resources’