The “hapless” Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) should be put out of its misery, according to an industry veteran.
Malcolm Webb, the former Oil & Gas UK chief executive, said there was an “urgent need for change in Government energy policy”. He has since suggested mothballing DECC.
“Currently, in my opinion, it is a mess of confused and conflicting objectives and it needs to be reset to recognise the inevitable and strong need for UK oil and gas production in significant quantities for decades yet to come. All too often, instead of focusing on the total energy situation, governments north and south of the border have obsessed on the issue of electricity generation,” he said.
Despite its importance, electric power only comprised one-third of the UK’s energy supply, according to the former industry chief.
“Another third relates to heat. Over 80% of UK homes are heated by natural gas, which is by far the best economic supply solution for both our domestic and industrial heating needs. The final third of our energy supply relates to transport, where oil is the only credible current technology,”
“The idea that a majority of either transport or heating in the UK could be electrified in the next couple of decades is delusional . And as for electricity itself, thanks to Government failure to secure sufficient new large scale gas powered generation, we can now see prices, unreliability of supply and increase in particulate emissions from diesel generators all on the increase. That is a truly dismal result, which could and should have been avoided.
“So why has this happened? Well a large part of the blame has to be laid at the door of the hapless UK Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC), which in my opinion surely now needs to be put out of its misery and replaced by a more fit for purpose organisation.”
Mr Webb, who stressed his comments were his alone, said sending the energy policy back into the Department of Business Innovation and Skills (BIS), climate policy back into the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and allowing the Oil Gas Authority to continue on with its agenda was a feasible way forward.
“When DECC was first created many hoped it would deliver a better informed and focused energy policy,” he said.
“Instead we got a department which was seriously under-resourced and might have been more accurately titled “Department for Climate Change and sometimes Energy”. This is not to belittle in any way the importance and seriousness of the climate change challenge but rather to say that the energy part of DECC’s brief and especially that related to the fuels which deliver over 70% of our total energy supply (i.e. oil and gas), has been very seriously under played.2
Mr Webb, who spent 10 years leading OGUK, recalled entertaining the “revolving door” of Energy Ministers.
“Harking back to my days at Oil & Gas UK, I recall undertaking briefing sessions for each new Secretary of State having responsibility for energy policy, from Patricia Hewitt through to Ed Davey, on the important facts it seemed they didn’t know about the UK oil and gas industry,”
“It would have been counterproductive for me to say this then, but it always raised two questions in my mind: ‘Why don’t they seem to know all these facts?’ and ‘Why haven’t DECC officials already briefed them on this?’
“Additionally, there was almost a ‘revolving door’ procession of Energy Ministers, which I am sure in practice meant that that few of them had enough time to properly understand the issues before they were moved on. Also, have you ever wondered how many qualified engineers there are amongst our MPs at Westminster?
“I believe the answer is not far from zero. The same will certainly be true for Government Ministers and even senior civil servants, including at DECC. So maybe it shouldn’t come as a complete surprise that we have a questionable energy policy if it is created by people who are often only in office for a few months and who maybe didn’t fully appreciate, or were not properly briefed on, the important technical issues.”
Mr Webb’s comments comes as Energy Minister Andrea Leadsom hinted DECC’s future could look incredibly different. Ms Leadsom fueled speculation the department could be scrapped on the same day Amber Rudd left her post as the Secretary for Energy and Climate Change.
Tomorrow Malcolm Webb writes exclusively for Energy Voice on the industry, its resilience and opportunities in future.
Mr Webb’s comments are his alone and not a reflection of OGUK>
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