Energy minister Charles Hendry… relegated to the back benches; renewables sceptic John Hayes is given the role.
Chloe Smith… moved to the Cabinet Office less than a year after she assumed the oil and gas brief at the Treasury from Justine Greening, who lasted no time at all either.
What is going on at Number 10?
During the Blair and Brown Administrations one became very used to energy ministers coming and going with monotonous regularity. It signalled that, frankly, Westminster wasn’t really interested in energy at all and quite possibly disliked anything to do with oil and gas. The Treasury gleefully cranked up its tax take massively, so damaging North Sea investment.
George Osborne in opposition at the time said he would assure fiscal stability for the UK Continental Shelf, should the Tories ever get back into power, which they did via a deal with Messrs Clegg & Co.
Of course, once in the driving seat as chancellor, and egged on by fresh in the job treasury secretary Danny Alexander, all such promises went out the window and a tax grab was attempted.
This raid went badly wrong, since when various grudging field allowance concessions have been made in an attempt at reparation, plus the fiscal forum was created to supposedly re-establish meaningful dialogue between the furious North Sea industry and the taxman.
Rather more than a year ago, I refused to interview Hendry, despite having been approached by DECC. Why? Because I was sick of politicians trotting out much the same old rubbish, only to be gone the next day.
But at All-Energy this year, Hendry gave good account of himself. I chaired the opening plenary and, to be fair, he was excellent. Moreover, he even said that Aberdeen could become for maritime renewables what it is for oil and gas… the UK linchpin. That was unexpected.
I met him a few weeks ago at Chevron. We talked a little and promised to meet up in the autumn.
What was outstanding about Hendry was his passion for energy. He held the brief in opposition for several years before the coalition came to power two and a bit years ago. Now he’s gone. What did he do wrong?
And so to Hayes. Doubtless he will beat a path to Aberdeen PDQ to placate nervous North Sea leaders. And if the Treasury has any sense, it will do the same with Chloe Smith’s replacement.
As for the Hayes attitude towards renewables, well, the following statement said to have been made on the BBC in 2009 is telling: “Renewable energy needs to pass the twin tests of environmental and economic sustainability and wind power fails on both counts”.
Really? If that’s the case then I presume he has the same view about nuclear which, because of the nuclear legacy… the stockpiles of waste that we effectively bequeath in perpetuity to future generations … clearly fails both tests.
I think Hayes needs re-educating.
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