I was lucky enough to get invited onto the @TEDTalks stage to explain how our reliance on oil and gas is driving multiple crises, including a fuel poverty catastrophe in the UK, and how the movement against oil and gas expansion has never been stronger:.

RT @renewablesmiffy: @cuillin_glen @tessakhan Now the reality. There are no magic reserves no matter how hard you hope for them. https://t.….

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We need more of that ambition--more investment, more support for supply chains & workers--which requires looking to and planning for the future, not pretending we can turn the clocks back to the 1970s. END.

So lets focus on making the most of that opportunity, rather than pretend that North Sea geology, and the climate crisis, isn't real. The UK gov is finally taking some steps to actually make this transition happen (eg by investing in local manufacturing of offshore wind kit). /9.

There couldn't be a more ideological, unfounded approach to energy policy than the Badenoch's--except maybe Reform's. Compared to other oil & gas producers, the UK is an exceptionally lucky position to have the capacity & resources to transition its workforce & energy supply. /8.

On why more North Sea oil & gas won't provide secure or affordable energy, I'll point you to my thoughts from Sunday. TLDR: We don't own it, most of it gets exported, plus we don't have the refinery capacity for the kind of oil we produce.

It is especially. galling to hear Badenoch decry job losses. Where was that concern for the decade that the Tories were in government while jobs supported by the sector halved? The O&G workforce & supply chains urgently need a proper plan, developed with unions--not delusion./6.

Basically she is in deep denial about the geological reality of the North Sea which has been in decline for decades. New mandates & tax breaks will not change that. Even with new fields, our dependency on imported gas is set to rise to 97% by 2050. Time for a new plan folks! /5

Plus the industry's current emissions reduction targets are voluntary, so they aren't holding drilling back (& are ignored by some operators anyway). If she wants to ignore the recent Supreme Ct ruling requiring the climate impact of fields to be accounted for, I wish her luck /4.

She also wants to cut alleged red tape, i.e. regulations that require a highly polluting industry to assess & monitor its environmental impact, including in marine protected areas that we currently drill in. Those regs have rarely, if ever, stopped fields from being developed. /3.

Badenoch wants to unleash the regulator (the NSTA) to focus on maximising extraction. But the NSTA already has a Principal Objective, enshrined in law, that is literally "maximising the economic recovery" of oil & gas. Does she want the NSTA to encourage uneconomic extraction? /2.

Genuinely crackers statement from Kemi Badenoch this AM setting out her approach to North Sea oil & gas. As she says, "cheap abundant energy is the foundation of prosperity". which is why we need to plan to transition away from North Sea O&G and focus on renewables instead🧵

8. The Tories & Reform are on the side of profiteering oil & gas companies; companies that play the victim while paying their shareholders 100s of millions (and laying people off at the same time). Now more than ever we need politicians who will put the public interest first. END.

7. We are so lucky to have some of the best renewable resources in the world in the UK, inc. a fifth of the world's offshore wind capacity. If we harness that & support domestic manufacturing of the kit that's needed we could have secure, affordable energy & long-term jobs.

6. All of this is to say nothing of the climate implications of the Tories' stance. Brutal heat, wildfires, drought--it's all going to get worse if we keep adding new oil & gas fields to the existing global over-supply of fossil fuels. Continuing down this road is madness.

5. You may also recall that in the distant past when Sunak was PM, he also called for the extraction of every last drop of O&G (as did PM Truss). Sunak even tried to pass a bill to mandate annual licensing. That never got off the ground, but why not flog a dead horse once more?.

4. The reality of the North Sea is that, despite regular licensing rounds & v generous tax breaks, jobs supported by the sector have halved in the last decade. Now is the time to plan a transition that supports the workforce, not double-down on a diminishing resource.

3. The idea we can unleash a golden age of oil & gas by ditching enviro regulations is absurd. The industry hasnt had to account for the main enviro impact of its drilling until this year & we still allow polluting practices like flaring that were banned in Norway decades ago. .

2. It doesn't belong to us & as a result more than 80% of our oil is exported. We're free to buy it back like any other punter, but it doesn't make us any more energy secure to produce it here. Plus, we don't controlhow much we pay for it & affordability is the real issue here. .

1. This is a matter of geology not politics. The NS has been declining for decades, which is why the 100s of licences the Tories issued in the last decade have produced a grand total of 16 days worth of gas. Most of what's left is oil, which brings us to the commercial reality. .

This would be laughable if it wasn't so serious: yet again, the Tories are claiming that we can get "all our oil and gas" from the North Sea & that we should be doing even more to support the industry to extract. Here's why we should treat that with maximum scepticism: