Nicholas Earl
UK Labour’s secret love: The oil and gas industry
LONDON — It was an unlikely stage for a political love-in.Labour Party Leader Keir Starmer and Ed Mi...
8 months ago
Labour will back ‘boiler tax,’ says Miliband
LONDON — The Labour Party will introduce a controversial “boiler tax” if it gets into power at the next election, the shadow energy secretary said on Tuesday.Ed Miliband, speaking at an event in London, said that Labour would “support the Clean Heat Marke...
6 months ago
Net zero meets the NIMBYs: Inside the battle for the UK’s biggest solar farm
EYNSHAM VILLAGE HALL, OXFORDSHIRE, England — On a winter afternoon, dozens of local residents pour into a drafty village hall, tucked away in the picturesque English countryside. They wear thick coats and skeptical frowns, and are here to fight plans to b...
6 months ago
UK energy bills could rise under government plans to fund nuclear
LONDON — The U.K. government is mulling plans which would hike household energy bills to help pay for a new nuclear energy plant.Ministers are considering tweaking the funding deal for Sizewell C, a proposed £20 billion nuclear plant in Suffolk, as they s...
6 months ago
UK hints at green taxes for frequent fliers
LONDON — The U.K. government has opened the door to new green taxes on airline passengers, just five months after playing down the idea.If the aviation sector “is not meeting the emissions reductions trajectory” required to bring down pollution, ministers...
6 months ago
No more ‘business as usual’ in climate fight, UN boss warns ‘slipping’ politicians
LONDON — The world’s richest countries must end their “business as usual” approach to climate change or risk worsening global inequality, a leading United Nations diplomat warned Wednesday.Simon Stiell, executive secretary for U.N. Climate Change, told an...
6 months ago
UK Energy Minister Graham Stuart quits government ahead of election
LONDON — Energy Minister Graham Stuart has stepped down from his role at the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero.Stuart announced his decision to return to the backbenches on Friday afternoon, ending a ministerial career that spanned eight years.H...
6 months ago
Heartland Tories in solar scrap to save their seats
LONDON — Conservative MPs, months out from a general election and lagging badly behind their Labour opponents, are in the fight of their lives.Polls suggests they could even collapse into a squabbling rump of fewer than 100 MPs.And one potential contribut...
5 months ago
Labour’s climate plan: build, baby, build
RUNCORN, England — Prime Minister Keir Starmer is a man in a hurry.He arrived in No. 10 Downing Street with a promise that Labour would rapidly transform the U.K. energy system. Now, he has little choice but to crack on and try to make it happen.That mean...
2 months ago
Labour energy chief Ed Miliband faces local solar backlash
DONCASTER, England — If the polls are correct, Ed Miliband will be U.K. energy secretary by Friday, overseeing Labour’s ambitious push to back clean energy projects like solar and wind farms all over the country.But in a hint of the challenges ahead for a...
2 months ago
The sleepy corner of England battling China
CORNWALL, England — The Conservatives have dominated politics in sleepy south-west England for nearly a decade. Suddenly, they're in deep trouble. A surge in support for the Liberal Democrats, the U.K.’s traditional third party, coupled with the Tories’ o...
2 months ago
Keir Starmer’s worst nightmare? Becoming Margaret Thatcher
LONDON — When Keir Starmer wanted to woo Conservative voters, he knew just who to talk about.Penning a column in the Daily Telegraph, a favorite for Tory supporters, the center-left Labour leader heaped praise on Conservative titan Margaret Thatcher.The l...
2 months ago