‘Bring it on’, Bowie tells Scottish Government over nuclear power

Tessa Khan, executive director of Uplift, insists the only way to bring down energy costs is “to move to a clean, homegrown, electrified energy system” after Shadow Energy Security Secretary Andrew Bowie said a Conservative government will legislate for new nuclear power in Scotland.

She said: “The Conservatives’ Trumpian obsession with oil and gas is blinding them to the reality facing billpayers: unaffordable energy bills driven by our dependence on oil and gas, the price of which we don’t control.

“New drilling in the North Sea will do nothing to cut bills, as the Tories have acknowledged, or strengthen our energy security. Most of what remains in the basin is oil, the vast majority of which is exported by the oil firms that own it. The huge Rosebank oil field, which is overwhelmingly oil destined for international markets, will do almost nothing to displace imports.

“Kemi Badenoch’s party is increasingly out of step with British business, the majority of whom support the phase out of fossil fuels. They know, even if Andrew Bowie doesn’t, that the only way to bring down energy costs for good is to move to a clean, homegrown, electrified energy system as quickly as possible.

“To pretend that new oil and gas is a path to growth, energy security and secure jobs is a denial of the facts and a betrayal of workers who need credible industrial planning, not a pipedream.”