Baroness Foster of Oxton (Con)

My Lords, I support the comments made by my noble friend Lord Offord. The title of this Statement on Today’s Lists— “Building the North Sea’s Energy Future”—is an oxymoron; the proposals coming forward from the Energy Secretary are doing quite the opposite. An industrialised nation such as ours cannot be dependent on so much alternative and renewable energy. We will, for the foreseeable future, need to rely on hydrocarbons. One of my concerns is about energy security and self-sufficiency; I do not think that that has been taken into account at all. We have turbulence across the Middle East and wars going on, obviously with Russia involved, and yet the reliance of the UK and Europe on these ways of bringing energy into our country does not seem to have been taken account of at all. Frankly, what is going on is vandalism. Some 2,000 jobs are at risk, without which probably at least 10,000 people will be without the supply chain, but that is a number that is just thrown up in the air. That will be the hard effect, certainly if we were to look around Aberdeen and such areas. That notwithstanding, and although it did not concern the North Sea specifically, I attended a very interesting meeting today with Cuadrilla—the company that sunk the wells for shale gas. Over the years we have had to look at alternative ways of fuelling this nation, and have had good discussions, but now, not only is fracking the big bad wolf but the vandalism that is taking place—pouring concrete down perfectly serviceable wells, which may in the future be very useful to us, notwithstanding the geopolitical position and energy uncertainty across the world—is absolutely astonishing. I note the Minister’s comments, but I am not sure who the Energy Secretary, Ed Miliband, is trying to convince. A lot of this is built on ideology and is not helpful to the British economy. We are already seeing businesses suffering with the policies from this Labour Government—for example, the closure of the Vauxhall factory in Luton—and this is just the start. I ask the Minister to discuss further with our Energy Secretary positive ways of moving forward. The net-zero obsession is going to destroy this economy quicker than most other things. We need a reality check on this if we want this country to grow. According to the Prime Minister, growth is apparently key to the Government’s agenda, but what they are actually proposing will not produce growth.