After reimplementing a ban on fracking in the United Kingdom, a report has claimed the British government is planning on alleviating its crippling energy crisis by buying natural gas from the United States.
Talks regarding a so-called “energy security partnership” agreement that would allow the United Kingdom to buy billions of cubic meters of gas — much of it will likely be from fracking — from the United States are reportedly in their final stages, a report on Tuesday has claimed.
It comes shortly after the UK’s Tory party government under newly minted Prime Minister Rishi Sunak reimplemented a ban on fracking in England, despite the country facing the possibility of rolling blackouts this winter due to a Europe-wide energy shortage.
While British politicians seem extremely reticent to avail of the country’s own natural resources to defeat the ongoing crisis, according to a report by The Telegraph, authorities are now reportedly aiming to solve their energy problems by simply buying gas from America.
Sources from inside the government have allegedly told the publication that an agreement to buy liquified natural gas (LNG) from the world superpower is nearly complete, with the agreement having previously been due to be announced back in October before the untimely political demise of former Prime Minister Liz Truss.
Overall, British officials are hoping that the agreement would allow the UK to buy around 10 billion cubic meters of gas from the United States, though this figure has yet to be finalised.
This “energy security partnership” is meanwhile set to be billed by the Biden Administration in the U.S. as some sort of green energy investment scheme that will aim to push renewables in the two countries in the face of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The Telegraph reportedly predicts that news of the deal will go down extremely poorly with the UK’s opposition parties, who are likely to attack PM Sunak for trying to import more fossil fuels while attending the COP27 climate conference in Egypt.
However, with the UK’s national grid warning that there could be blackouts this winter between 4pm and 7pm on particularly cold days should European energy supplies dwindle, it appears that Sunak may not have much of a choice in the matter should he wish to keep his country’s lights on.
With that being said, many critics of the current government would have thought a similar thing in regard to fracking in England, which has long been heralded as a way of boosting UK energy security in the face of an ever more unstable world.
While the short-lived Truss government did indeed unban the technology in England for such purposes, Sunak very quickly reimplemented the ban upon entering Number 10.
There is no sign that the technology will return to the country anytime soon, with Sunak instead telling world leaders at COP27 this week that global instability in the face of the Ukraine War gives them an even greater excuse to push their green agenda.
The government has meanwhile even opened the doors to giving climate “reparations” to the likes of Pakistan due to the fact that Britain industrialised before other nations did.
“We industrialised first and we appreciate the rest of the world needs to be able to bring themselves along as well,” business secretary Grant Shapps remarked regarding the issue.