New British Prime Minister Liz Truss is attempting to tackle the massive energy crisis facing Britons.
She has reversed course on Boris Johnson’s anti-fracking policy.
She promised more drilling in the North Sea and to end the ban on fracking.
Britons must never again be forced to pay exorbitant energy bills, Liz Truss will declare on Thursday as she promises more North Sea drilling and ditches the fracking ban.
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Businesses will get protection from energy price rises in a pandemic-style government intervention that could end up costing more than £150 billion.
She is also planning to cap energy bills at £2,500 for the typical household per year – for the next two years.
British news media have reported that Truss plans to cap energy bills. The cost to taxpayers of that step could reach 100 billion pounds ($116 billion).
“The prime minister knows she has no choice but to back an energy price freeze, but it won’t be cheap and the real choice, the political choice is who is going to pay,” Starmer said. “Is she really telling us that she is going to leave (energy companies’) vast excess profits on the table and make working people foot the bill for decades to come?”
The government expects the cap to cut the U.K.’s soaring inflation rate.
The government says the cap will cut the U.K.’s soaring inflation rate by 4 to 5 percentage points. Inflation hit 10.1% in July and has been forecast to rise to 13% before the end of the year.
The moves are a huge government intervention in the economy by a leader who sees herself as a small-state, free-market conservative. Truss says she favors tax cuts over handouts, but she has been forced to act by the scale of the crisis.
The anti-fracking tide is turning in Europe – will it turn in America next?
