Minister rules out energy rationing in UK despite Ukraine crisis
A cabinet minister has rejected calls for the UK to consider rationing energy, as a plan to drastically increase onshore wind power also appeared to be significantly scaled back.
The transport secretary, Grant Shapps, said Russia’s invasion of Ukraine had been a “massive wake-up call” for western nations about their dependence on imported oil and gas, which European countries are now trying to wean themselves off.
However, Shapps said the UK would not follow the lead of other countries, such as Germany, that have put emergency measures in place to ration gas if Russia cuts off supplies to Europe.
An international row is escalating over Russia’s demand that, from 1 April, all gas purchased by foreign countries must be paid for in roubles – a move that G7 countries have rejected.
According to Reuters, the Dutch government said it would urge consumers to use less gas, Greece has called an emergency meeting of suppliers, and the French energy regulator urged consumers not to panic.
Labour’s Jonathan Reynolds, the shadow business secretary, said fuel rationing “should be an extreme option”.
“We should be making those plans and the government should be preparing – not necessarily in public – for that situation,” he told the BBC’s Sunday Morning show.
After the prime minister, Boris Johnson, flew to Saudi Arabia and the UAE to urge oil-producing countries in the Middle East to turn on the taps, Reynolds said the government should not be “shopping from one authoritarian regime to the next for fossil fuels”.
He called for the long-delayed energy security strategy to be published with a particular focus on generating more renewable and nuclear energy, as well as improving energy efficiency.
Reynolds also said there was “a lot of
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