Fracking or drilling for gas in the North Sea will make no difference to energy bills, the government’s infrastructure chief has said as he urged Boris Johnson to accelerate net-zero commitments.
Sir John Armitt warned that the prime minister’s promises to extract more British hydrocarbons to end dependence on Russian energy would not bring down prices in the short term. Handing out further drilling licences would make it more difficult to reach net-zero targets, he added.
In response to President Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, Johnson has promised a new energy strategy next week to reduce dependence on Russian oil and gas. It is expected to include plans for exploiting new areas of the North Sea as well as a large expansion in onshore wind
