Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
Unlock the free White House Watch newsletter
Your guide to what the 2024 US election means for Washington and the world
Donald Trump has criticized UK plans to withdraw from North Sea oil and gas production in the latest salvo against Sir Keir Starmer’s government from the incoming US administration.
The president-elect said the UK was “making a huge mistake”, adding “open up the North Sea” and “get rid of the windmill” in a post on his Truth Social social media site.
It’s unclear what prompted the post, which included a link to a November article in which APA Corp., owner of US oil producer Apache, said it would shut down North Sea operations by 2029 because high taxes and environmental regulations made them “uneconomic.” ”
Apache itself stopped drilling in the North Sea in June 2023 before Starmer’s government took over in July last year.
Trump’s digital intervention puts him in direct conflict with one of the Labor government’s cornerstone policies, to wean the UK off fossil fuels in the coming years.
The post suggests that the incoming US president wants to keep an eye on the domestic policies of other countries that has been a feature of his first term, which could further strain relations with the UK.
His intervention also follows a series of criticisms of Starmer’s government by Elon Musk, the Tesla chief and tech billionaire appointed by Trump to co-lead a new waste-cutting department.
Both men’s posts are likely to heighten concerns in the UK about a possible rocky US-UK relationship as the president is inaugurated for a second term this month.
Starmer appointed former Labor minister Lord Peter Mandelson as the new ambassador to Washington, while the prime minister and David Lammy, the foreign secretary, worked to try and forge ties with Trump and his allies.
Political consensus among UK Cracks have erupted around tackling climate change, with the Conservative Party – which mandated 2050 net zero goals under Theresa May – aligning itself more closely with Trump’s pro-fossil fuel stance.
Tory leader Kimi Badenoch, who describes herself as a “net zero skeptic”, recently met with vice president-elect JD Vance, while Musk called on people to vote for Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party, which it says will scrap the UK’s net zero emissions. . aim
Trump wants to boost oil and gas drilling in the US and has said he would end President Joe Biden’s flagship Inflation Reduction Act subsidy package for green energy.
His campaign also said he plans to withdraw from the 2015 international Paris Agreement to combat climate change. He did so at the end of his first term in office in 2020, though the United States rejoined under Biden a few months later.
Starmer’s government has made a shift away from oil and gas a major part of its agenda, citing the damaging effects of burning fossil fuels on the climate.
It plans to end North Sea licensing for new oil and gas exploration and raise tax rates on oil and gas producers.
Starmer’s administration is instead giving a big push to renewable energy such as wind turbines and solar farms. It seeks to decarbonise the electricity system by 2030, a step towards the UK’s wider, legally binding target of cutting carbon dioxide emissions across the economy to net zero by 2050.
Although some critics have questioned the wisdom of curbing domestic production of oil and gas when both will be needed for the next 25 years, albeit in reduced amounts, even as the UK moves towards its 2050 targets.
Downing Street declined to comment on Friday, but government officials argued for Labour’s long-standing position and its energy policy.
