Rachel Reeves has rejected Donald Trump’s call to halt the spread of “unsightly windmills” in the North Sea and drill for oil instead.
The US president took aim at wind turbines within hours of landing in Scotland last week for a trip that included a meeting with Sir Keir Starmer.
But the chancellor has insisted that there is no “either/or” choice between renewable and non-renewable energy sources on her visit to Lossiemouth on the North Sea coast in Moray on Friday.
In May Mr Trump hit out at one of the Labour leadership’s flagship strategies – net zero – when he told Sir Keir to “stop with the costly and unsightly windmills” and instead forge ahead with more drilling for oil in the North Sea.
Earlier this week he criticised Sir Keir’s taxes on North Sea oil, just hours after praising the prime minister when the two met at Mr Trump’s Scottish golf course.
Mr Trump said the resource was a “treasure chest for the United Kingdom” as he urged Sir Keir to “incentivise the drillers”.
It came less than a day after Mr Trump described Sir Keir as “strong” and “respected” in an impromptu press conference, and even said that he wanted “to make the prime minister happy”.
Asked whether ministers would “unlock” the North Sea “treasure chest”, as the US president suggested, Ms Reeves said: “Oil and gas are incredibly important for the UK and our energy security. And oil and gas is going to play an important role in our energy mix for decades to come.
“But it’s not either/or. At the same time, we’re investing in clean homegrown energy, including at Berwick Bank in Scotland, which will create thousands of new jobs and power millions of homes. And that’s what we need to do to make sure that our economy has this energy security that we need, that we bring down bills and bring more good jobs to Scotland.”
The US president has previously ranted about “big windmills” that “destroy everybody’s property values, kill all the birds”.
He has also claimed that they are unreliable energy sources, once bizarrely saying, “and then, all of a sudden, it stops; the wind and the televisions go off. And your wives and husbands say, ‘Darling, I want to watch Donald Trump on television tonight. But the wind stopped blowing and I can’t watch. There’s no electricity in the house, darling’.”
Conservative shadow Scottish secretary Andrew Bowie has written to Sir Keir, calling for a review of policies affecting the oil and gas industry.
“As President Trump has said, the UK’s ‘very high’ tax on oil and gas companies is a deterrent to investment,” he wrote.
“The extension of the energy profits levy (EPL), coupled with uncertainty around future licensing and investment signals, has created a climate of instability that threatens jobs, innovation and the region’s economic resilience.
“President Donald Trump’s remarks during your visit – calling Aberdeen the ‘oil capital of Europe’ and urging the UK to ‘bring it back’ – reflect a sentiment shared by many in the region.
“May I urge you to consider the president’s call to ‘incentivise’ domestic production of hydrocarbons? Oil and gas still have a vital role to play in our energy mix and economic future. British people would rather see the UK benefit from domestic exploration and drilling than import more from Norway and Qatar.”
