Far-left green activists have blockaded seven key oil terminals and depots in Britain the same day the energy price cap is being hiked by 54 per cent.
Just Stop Oil, one of a number of extremist anti-fossil fuel groups in the United Kingdom which recently disrupted professional football matches and the British Academy Film Awards (BAFTAs), blocked Inter Terminals UK, Navigator Terminals Thames, Esso Birmingham, Purfleet Fuels Terminal, Kingsbury Oil Terminal, the BP Depot in Tamworth, and the Buncefield Oil Depot in Hemel Hempstead, according to the BBC.
The publicly-funded broadcaster further reports that the better-known Extinction Rebellion (XR) group, which has shut down swathes of the British capital of London several times, claims it has “held” a further three sites “of strategic importance to the UK’s energy network”, namely Esso West, near Heathrow Airport, and Esso Hythe and BP Hamble, both near Southampton.
“The Just Stop Oil coalition is demanding an end to the government’s genocidal policy of expanding UK oil and gas production and is calling on all those outraged at the prospect of climate collapse and suffering from the cost-of-living crisis to stand with us,” Just Stop Oil declared in a statement — although Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government has not actually made opening new oil and gas fields or especially fracking for shale gas especially easy, given its leftist climate policies.
“Ordinary people can no longer afford oil and gas, it’s time to just stop oil,” the group added — failing to explain how abruptly removing oil from the energy mix could do anything other than increase prices massively.
Sky News has reported that, as of the time of publication, at least 13 people have been arrested in connection with the blockades, with Assistant Chief Constable Rachel Nolan of Essex Police warning that their protest has created an “extremely dangerous” situation.
“I want to be clear: policing is not anti-protest, but we must intervene where there is a risk to life or where laws are being broken,” she asaid.
“My hope is that this will be resolved safely and swiftly so that our officers can get back to protecting and serving the people of Essex.”
ExxonMobil UK has confirmed that, for the time being, the blockades have forced them to suspend operations at four locations.
Martin Daubney, a former Brexit Party MEP and the current deputy leader of Larence Fox’s Reclaim UK party, called for the leftists to be cleared off the roads with water cannon, quipping that it would “be the first wash these Just Stop Oil plonkers have had in months”.