Kemi Badenoch has vowed to extract as much oil and gas as possible from the North Sea if she is elected.
The Conservative Party will make ‘maximising extraction’ the goal, in a move away from Net Zero pledges.
Mrs Badenoch is set to give a speech in Aberdeen, which will draw comparison to Donald Trump‘s ‘drill baby drill’ moment.
She will announce that the Tories plan to completely overhaul the North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA), which oversees the issuing of licences.Â
The party plans to replace its current 12-page mandate with a simple order to extract the maximum possible amount of fossil fuels.
They will remove the word ‘transition’ from the NSTA, which was added by Boris Johnson in 2022 to signpost the phasing out of fossil fuels.Â
Mrs Badenoch said Britain ‘cannot afford not to be doing everything to get hydrocarbons out the ground’ to boost growth, The Sunday Telegraph reported.
She said: ‘We are in the absurd situation where our country is leaving vital resources untapped while neighbours such as Norway extract them from the same seabed.
Kemi Badenoch is set to give a speech in Aberdeen, which will be her version of Donald Trump’s ‘drill baby drill’ moment
Kemi Badenoch has vowed to extract as much oil and gas as possible from the North Sea if she is elected. Pictured: A oil rig in the North Sea
The Labour government has argued that replacing fossil fuels with clean energy such as offshore wind will help bring down household bills. Pictured: An offshore wind farm
‘Britain has already decarbonised more than every other major economy since 1990, yet we face some of the highest energy prices in the developed world.Â
‘This is not sustainable and it cannot continue. That is why I am calling time on this unilateral act of economic disarmament and Labour’s impossible ideology of net zero by 2050.
‘So, a future Conservative government will scrap all mandates for the North Sea beyond maximising extraction.
‘It is time that common sense, economic growth and our national interest came first, and only the Conservatives will deliver that.
‘We are going to get all our oil and gas out of the North Sea.’
The NSTA currently places an obligation on the oil and gas industry to assist Ed Miliband hitting his net zero targets.
This includes forcing the companies to promote carbon capture and storage, despite its huge costs.
The industry body for the oil and gas producers, Offshore Energy UK, previously warned that 1,000 jobs could be lost every month until 2030.
Mr Miliband has continuously argued that replacing fossil fuel production with clean energy will bring down household bills.
US President Donald Trump has been vocal about continuing to use fossil fuels ahead of green energyÂ
He has repeatedly referred to climate change as a ‘hoax’ and has also vowed to pull the US out of the Paris Agreement, which commits it to cutting greenhouse emissions as part of the effort to curb global warming.’ Pictured: Pumpjacks in Texas drilling for oil
However as costs continue to rise, he is under increasing pressure to prove that strategy will work.
Tory grandees previously warned that copying Donald Trump’s ‘atni-green agenda’ could hamper the party’s electoral recovery.
In November, a trio of former Cabinet ministers urged the new party leader to distance it from the president-elect’s ‘drill, baby, drill’, warning that while it may have worked in the US it will ‘alienate’ a majority of British voters.
Sir Robert Buckland, Sir Simon Clarke and Anne-Marie Trevelyan, who between them span the ideological width of the Conservative Party, spoke out ahead of Trump taking office for the second time in January.
Sir Simon, who was a rightwing Cabinet minister under both Boris Johnson and Liz Truss, said: ‘President Trump has won a historic victory, responding to voters’ concerns on issues ranging from illegal immigration to the state of the economy.
‘But the President’s anti-green agenda would alienate the majority of British voters.
‘We should of course make sure we decarbonise in the most cost effective way, and campaign to replace Ed Miliband’s hair-shirted statism – which has already sadly set in motion great and unnecessary harm – with market solutions.
‘But overt climate scepticism would make us a protest party, would ignore the major national security concerns inherent in leaving the UK dependent on foreign oil and gas and would not help to bring the Conservatives back to power.
Sir Robert Buckland, Sir Simon Clarke and Anne-Marie Trevelyan, who between them span the ideological width of the Conservative Party, spoke out about the anti-green policies
‘So we must learn the right lessons from the American election, and listen to the British public first and foremost.’
Mr Buckland, the former Justice and Wales Secretary who backed Kamala Harris at the election, said: ‘Trump’s anti-green agenda is the last thing our party needs.
‘The majority of people in every constituency in the country want climate action. They may question the best approach, but the goal must remain the same.
If we adopt ”drill, baby, drill” when it comes to the environment, we will never rebuild trust with the party and only show ourselves as out of touch.
‘Not only is fracking incredibly difficult in such a densely populated country, but our North Sea reserves are running low. If we want energy independence, our salvation lies with renewables and nuclear.’
Ms Trevelyan, the former transport secretary, added: ‘Under successive Conservative governments, we have led the world in the Net Zero journey. Under a Trump administration, the Conservatives should seek to work hand in hand with Republicans to champion free-market, climate policies that grow the economy today and leave a better world for our children tomorrow.
‘We have paved a route Trump and conservatives in America can follow.’
