Ecotricity founder Dale Vince has backed the Government’s decision to approve the Jackdaw gas field, but said the North Sea project would make only a limited difference to the UK’s energy bills, security of supply, emissions and employment.
Vince, described as a green industrialist and the founder of Ecotricity, responded after the Government gave the go-ahead to the gas project. The decision has prompted debate about its contribution to the UK’s energy supply, jobs and emissions.
He said the project should be judged in proportion to its overall effect, describing it as “a lot of fuss about nothing”. Vince also supported the approval because the field had already been granted a licence under the previous Conservative government.
What Dale Vince said about the gas field
In a statement, Vince said: “Labour have given the go-ahead to Jackdaw – the fuss made by environmentalists is inversely proportional to the impact of this. It’s a tiny gas field that already had a licence.”
He argued that Jackdaw would not reduce household energy bills, saying the Government had acknowledged that point. He also said the project would not significantly improve the UK’s energy security because of its relatively small size.
According to Vince, the field contains the equivalent of six months of annual UK consumption in total. He said it would create 27 new jobs and support a couple of hundred existing jobs, rather than bring a large number of new roles.
“It will lower our carbon footprint as a country – not by much, because it is tiny. It won’t bring bills down; the Government said this today – at last, some honesty on this topic. It won’t add to energy security by any significant degree, because it is tiny – holding just six months of annual UK consumption in total. It won’t bring lots of new jobs – just 27 – again, government honesty, but Jackdaw will support a couple of hundred existing ones. It’s really a lot of fuss about nothing,” he said.
Why Vince says approval was the right decision
Vince described the approval as a pragmatic decision, arguing that cancelling an existing agreement could damage business confidence. He also said it would be wrong for a new government to tear up contracts already granted under an earlier administration.
“This is a pragmatic decision; it’s the right one – this project had a licence from the Tories. When new governments tear up existing contracts, that’s bad for business confidence, and it’s also not moral,” Vince said.
He urged critics on all sides of the debate to keep the project’s scale in perspective. While he said Jackdaw would lower emissions, he stressed that the effect would be small and argued that the focus should remain on the wider transition to greener energy.
“Giving this overheated project the go-ahead ought to quiet the increasingly shrill voices on the right, and voices on the left or green side of life just need to see it in perspective. A tiny project, consented to by the Tories, won’t change much of anything. On emissions, it will lower them (but not by much). The most important thing is that we get on with the green transition – £2 billion more announced for that,” he said.