U.S. President Donald Trump has taken to social media to criticize once again the UK’s energy policy to pursue renewables and tax North Sea oil and gas operators more.
Referring to the UK, President Trump posted on Truth Social,
“I strongly recommend to them, however, that in order to get their Energy Costs down, they stop with the costly and unsightly windmills, and incentivize modernized drilling in the North Sea, where large amounts of oil lay waiting to be taken.”
“A century of drilling left, with Aberdeen as the hub. The old fashioned tax system disincentivizes drilling, rather than the opposite. U.K.’s Energy Costs would go WAY DOWN, and fast!” President Trump wrote on Friday on the social media platform.
This isn’t the first time President Trump has criticized the energy policy of the United Kingdom.
Early this year, ahead of his inauguration, Trump weighed in on the UK’s energy policy to hike the windfall tax on North Sea oil and gas operators and become a clean energy superpower by boosting offshore wind development.
Trump called for opening up the UK North Sea to oil and gas and getting rid of windmills in response to an announcement by Texas-based Apache that it would cease oil and gas production in the region due to the uneconomical windfall tax.
“The U.K. is making a very big mistake. Open up the North Sea. Get rid of Windmills!” President-elect Trump posted in early January on Truth Social.
The post contained an attached article about Apache’s recent announcement that it would exit the UK North Sea.
In recent weeks, the UK’s clean energy targets came under scrutiny after SSE, a major energy company and renewable projects developer in the UK, said it is reducing spending on renewables in its five-year plan to 2027 by $2 billion (£1.5 billion) “in a changing macro environment.”
The warning from SSE came weeks after Orsted, the world’s biggest offshore wind project developer, announced it had decided to discontinue the development of the Hornsea 4 offshore wind project in the UK in its current form, due to “adverse macroeconomic developments, continued supply chain challenges, and increased execution, market and operational risks.”
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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