The United Kingdom’s economic turbulence is a result of an addiction to the false promise of supposed green energy and a failure to achieve energy independence like America, Brexit leader Nigel Farage said.
While much of the establishment press in Britain, including allegedly conservative-leaning newspapers, have attempted to place blame for the price fluctuations of the currency on proposed tax cuts, the real culprit is the green agenda which has left the country vulnerable to shocks in the international market, Nigel Farage said on Tuesday.
Speaking with the US-based business cable television network CNBC, Mr Farage said that “every prime minister since Tony Blair has been addicted to the climate change agenda, regardless of the fact that we only produce one per cent of global CO2, and that China built 80 big, new coal-fired power stations last year.
“This is a self-inflicted wound, we’ve got coal, we’ve got oil, we’ve got gas. We should be like America, we should be energy-independent. In fact, we should be an energy exporter. We haven’t done that and the whole political class has bought into this thing, it’s self-destructive,” he said.
Mr Farage said that the energy independence secured in America by former President Donald Trump, who increased fracking for natural gas during his tenure largely through de-regulation of the industry, is the reason why the dollar has been steady compared to the pound sterling and other European currencies.
“Germany, Italy and much of Europe have made themselves wholly dependent on Russian gas, they were warned by Donald Trump, amongst others, that strategically it was a very bad thing to have done. They now find themselves in a desperate position. Energy rationing has begun in Germany, in public buildings already.
“But we as an island, a Brexit island have the advantage of a have huge reserves of natural gas, we haven’t tapped a single barrel of onshore gas because we are meeting Net-Zero commitments and that should be a warning to the entire Western world.”
As opposed to the green happy administration of Boris Johnson, Prime Minister Liz Truss has said that her government will look to expand fracking throughout the country. The UK has significant resources in this area of energy, with previous estimates from the government claiming that the Bowland Shale gas deposits could provide decades of locally sourced energy for the country.
However, Truss has also said that local consent will be required before any project gets off the ground, meaning that it could be years before any benefits are seen by the public, with it being likely that local activists will attempt to derail or delay any such projects. It is also conceivable that no actual fracking will be done before the Truss government is turfed out of office.
The new government is also looking towards investing in nuclear energy, with Truss agreeing last week to work on joint nuclear projects with France, one of the leading nuclear power producers in Europe. Business Secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg has also announced this month that Britain will embark on attempting to build the world’s first nuclear fusion power station. The next generation of nuclear technology, which uses the same atomic reactions that power the sun, is seen as a potential source of limitless and clean energy.
Yet, as with fracking, the benefits of such investment are not likely to be felt by the average Briton for years, if not decades, meaning that the country, like most of Europe, is facing a difficult winter ahead. Earlier this month, the United Kingdom’s energy market regulator, Ofgem, warned that there is a “significant risk” of the country facing blackouts during the quickly approaching winter months.
Follow Kurt Zindulka on Twitter here @KurtZindulka