‘Chaos with Ed Miliband’ as rumours swirl Labour will wring North Sea dry of oil

Energy secretary Ed Miliband is reportedly looking for ways to to permit new drilling for North Sea oil and gas. The news comes in spite of Labour campaign pledges to grant no new licenses for new fields.

New oil from old fields under Ed Miliband?

The new plans for the North Sea will be announced within the next few months. A spokesperson for the government stated that:

The strategy will set out how the government intends to meet its manifesto commitments to ensure no new licenses to explore new fields and maintaining existing fields for their lifetime.

Labour’s manifesto held that it wouldn’t grant new licenses for new oil and gas fields. Apparently, the party still plans to honour this “in full”. However, Ed Miliband has reportedly been on the search for loopholes to wring as much oil from the North Sea as possible.

The Guardian reported that this could take the form of ‘bespoke’ licences for companies to explore sites which were previously deemed unprofitable. This scheme was proposed by Aberdeen University green-transition expert Prof. John Underhill last month. Underhill stated that:

Bespoke permitting, tied to critical infrastructure, would speed up the process of evaluation and development of existing discoveries and undrilled prospects. A new permitting regime would extend the life of critical infrastructure, enable growth and protect jobs by enabling discoveries to be evaluated on a case-by-case basis and speed up the time from award to production.

He also explained that this could be paired with measures to reduce the carbon emissions of the extraction, such as a ban on flaring excess gas.

Miliband’s team is also reportedly drawing up plans to permit companies to use so-called ‘tie-backs’. This is the name for the use of existing sites to probe new sections of seabed close-by. The oil industry estimates that this could yield as many as 7bn extra barrels of fossil fuel.

Powers overlooked

Politico also reported that Miliband may seek to exploit the wording of guidance drafted back in June. The news site highlighted an abridged version of the text, though it is recounted here in full:

When reaching a decision as to whether agreement should be given to the grant of consent the Secretary of State will consider the environmental effects of the project (as required by the Offshore EIA Regulations) and will form a view of the overall balance of advantage between any potential significant effects on the environment and wider benefits to the interests of the nation and any other relevant factors in proceeding with the project. In reaching this view the Secretary of State will usually consider, amongst other matters, the severity, extent, understanding and duration of the significant effects, the Government’s overall energy and environmental objectives, and the potential economic and other advantages of the project proceeding. This includes an assessment of the extent to which the project aligns with the Government’s stated objectives for the future of the North Sea.

Politico argued that this grants Miliband the power to “override objections and approve schemes, even if they breach environmental regulations”. The energy secretary could argue that the economic gains are greater than the climate losses, and thus permit the drilling.

However, it should be noted that Politico omitted the first and last sentence quoted here, along with the words “the severity, extent, understanding and duration of the significant effects”. This is not to say that the assessment is wrong per se – it certainly has its supporters in government – but rather to provide greater context.

Rosebank and Jackdaw

Ed Miliband’s representatives insist that they’ve made no final decisions. The energy secretary is under increasing pressure from the likes of oil workers, Donald Trump and even Treasury officials to squeeze more money from the North Sea.

This includes making decisions regarding two new oilfields, Shell’s Rosebank and Equinor’s Jackdaw. A judge previously rejected the companies’ applications for environmental permission. However, both companies have now reapplied. Should Miliband grant the permission, he could argue that he hasn’t actually granted a new license. Rather, he’s merely given environmental permission – and so Labour’s manifesto pledges remain intact.

However, no matter how carefully Labour follows the exact wording of its promises, the fact remains that all of these schemes will result in yet more oil being extracted from the North Sea, and later burned for fuel. The world has already missed major climate milestones. Any new oil – whether from old fields or new – inches us closer to complete ecological breakdown.

It will not matter that Miliband can say he kept his word when half of the UK drowns while the other half burns. At least the economy is doing well though, hey?

Featured image via the Canary