The North Sea Transition Authority approved development of the Rosebank field, allowing owners Equinor and Ithaca Energy to move forward with the project about 130 kilometers northwest of the Shetland Islands. The authority is a U.K. regulator charged with both maximizing the economic benefits of Britain’s North Sea energy resources and helping the country meet its goals for reducing carbon emissions.
Caroline Lucas, the only Green Party member of the House of Commons, called the decision “morally obscene” at a time when the climate emergency is getting “more and more serious.” “Energy security and cheaper bills aren’t delivered by allowing highly subsidized, foreign-owned fossil fuel giants to extract more oil and gas from these islands and sell it overseas to the highest bidder,” she said.
One of the largest untapped deposits in U.K. waters, Rosebank holds an estimated 300 million recoverable barrels of oil, Equinor said. “Continued North Sea production is important for maintaining domestic security of supply and making the U.K. less vulnerable to a repeat of the energy crisis that caused prices to soar after Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine,” the government said.
Susannah Streeter, head of money and markets at Hargreaves Lansdown, said recent decisions raise questions about the government's commitment to its environmental targets, which may prompt companies to delay needed investments in renewable energy.
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