The energy price cap has increased to £1,928 raising the average bill by £94
Union body says UK is “feeding foreign firms’ profits” while British households struggle
Commenting on Monday’s energy price cap announcement, TUC General Secretary Paul Nowak said: “No one should struggle to get by in one of the richest countries in the world.
“But 13 years of wage stagnation and cuts to social security have left millions badly exposed to sky-high bills this winter.
“Energy bills are already 50% higher than two years ago, so today’s rise will just hammer households even harder in the coming year. “
“It doesn’t have to be this way.
“Other governments are investing in publicly owned clean power and insulating homes.”
“The UK is feeding foreign firms’ profits and subsidising cheaper bills abroad, while British households struggle to heat their homes and pay their bills.”
“The world is burning and the UK Government is helping the arsonists pay for the fuel”
Climate campaigners have reacted with outrage at the news that Norwegian oil giant Equinor has today announced pre-tax profits of £5.8 billion (US$7.5 billion) in JST THE LAST THREE MONTHS.
Campaigners said that with climate-induced fires sweeping Greece “the UK Government is helping the arsonists pay for the fuel” with a massive tax break for Equinor to develop a new oil field.
Equinor’s flagship project in the UK, the controversial Rosebank oil field, is in line to pocket a tax break of £3.75 billion from the UK Government to incentivise its development. This deliberate loophole in the Windfall Tax means that 91% of the cost of developing the 500 million barrel field will be covered by the public purse, despite Equinor’s massive profits and the fact that 80% of Rosebank’s oil will be exported.
Campaigners in Aberdeen yesterday delivered a giant ‘cheque’ to the Equinor offices to highlight the injustice of the tax break.
Last year, Equinor broke records with pre-tax yearly profits of £62 billion (US$74.9billion), benefiting from increased prices for oil and gas due to the war in Ukraine. Meanwhile, energy bills for consumers skyrocketed and millions were pushed into fuel poverty.
There has been widespread opposition to the Rosebank field, with public protests across the UK, politicians including SNP MPs Tommy Sheppard and Mhairi Black and the head of the UK Government’s own climate advisory committee, Lord Deben, speaking out against the project.
A decision on Rosebank is rumoured to be scheduled for after the summer recess, following delays due to concerns that the project would not meet net zero commitments under the North Sea Transition Deal.
Friends of the Earth Scotland’s oil and gas campaigner Freya Aitchison said: “These outrageous profits every quarter serve as a stark reminder that companies like Equinor have no intention of changing their ways.
“Fossil fuel giants are simply making too much money from upholding the climate-destroying status quo. Adding insult to injury is the massive tax break Equinor will receive should they go ahead with Rosebank, showing how the UK Government would rather hand out public money than say no to big polluters.
“Grant Shapps and the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero are blatantly ignoring the devastating impacts of climate breakdown, exemplified most recently in the terrifying wildfires in Greece.
“By cheerfully inviting oil companies to drill for yet more polluting fossil fuels, they are effectively denying the reality of the climate crisis. The world is burning and the UK Government is helping the arsonists pay for the fuel.
“The Scottish Government can no longer sit on the fence on this climate denial and must speak out against Rosebank and all other new fossil fuel projects. We need a just transition to clean, affordable energy now.”
BREAKING NEWS: British Gas parent company Centrica has just posted it’s highest ever profits – £969 million in first six months of this year. Shell, too, has just posted eye-watering profits.
Climate campaigners have reacted to the announcement of Shell’s 2022 profits of £32.2billion ($39.9b), saying the figures show that our harmful energy system must urgently be transformed away from fossil fuels.
Climate science is clear that we urgently need to transition away from our broken fossil fuel energy system in order to secure a liveable future. Analysis has shown that renewable energy is 9 times cheaper than new fossil fuel energy.
A Channel 4 investigation in August 2022 shows Shell invested equivalent of just 6.3% of its £17.1bn profits into low carbon energy, investing nearly three times more in oil and gas.
Independent climate advisors have said that increasing UK supply of oil and gas will have almost no impact on UK bills as prices are set by the international market. However, continued reliance on volatile fossil fuels will leave millions vulnerable to spikes in their prices.
Friends of the Earth Scotland’s oil and gas campaigner Freya Aitchison said: “The announcement of yet another obscene profit for Shell shows the scale of the harm that these companies are inflicting on households and businesses.
“Oil company bosses and shareholders are being allowed to get even richer by banking huge profits, while normal people are facing enormous energy bills and millions are being forced into fuel poverty.
“Shell is worsening climate breakdown and extreme weather by continuing to invest and lock us into new oil and gas projects for decades to come. Their Jackdaw project was given the green light by the UK Government in 2022 and we know they only invest a small fraction of their profits into renewable energy.
“These profit figures are further evidence that our current fossil fuelled energy system is seriously harming people and the climate. Despite this, the Scottish Government’s recent draft Energy Strategy contains very few new steps to tackle the climate crisis or the immediate impacts of the cost of energy crisis.
“Ministers should instead chart a clear path away from fossil fuels and towards an energy system that is built on clean, reliable renewables. They must listen to the science which tells us that to meet climate targets in a fair way, fossil fuel extraction needs to be phased out in the next decade.”
