Energy Bill [ Lords ] (Eleventh sitting) - 15th June 2023

14:46 Alan Brown (Kilmarnock and Loudoun) (SNP)

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Gray. You must be delighted to have the Thursday afternoon shift this week. I agree with the Government amendments on the expansion of definitions and capturing other infrastructure required to facilitate service offshore wind generation, especially given the scale of the build-out still required and the renewable energy offshore wind targets that we want to see.

I agree with the principles of strategic compensation for adverse environmental effects in clause 246. Such considerations have been a stumbling block for Berwick Bank offshore wind farm, for example, so having regulations that provide clarity on environmental considerations and possible compensation for other projects is certainly welcome. The key test will be whether sufficient clarity is provided and workable. If we want to deploy renewable energy at a much quicker rate to achieve cheaper bills and eliminate reliance on fossil fuels, we need to be able to look at the environmental impacts in the round and come to sensible, balanced solutions. That means creating environmental equivalence or improvements elsewhere by implementing solutions away from sites if it is deemed that they cannot mitigate the environmental impacts of the site of infrastructure construction.

I have one word of caution; I may not be quite as concerned as the shadow Minister, the hon. Member for Southampton, Test, but we need to ensure that these regulations and processes do not become an avenue or vehicle for developers to choose a much easier, cheaper financial solution for them, rather than looking at all avenues to mitigate the environmental impacts at the construction sites. It is critical that robust analysis is undertaken by the relevant regulatory bodies. I realise that subsection (4) is not intended to ensure that everything is looked at and worked through to the nth degree, but we need to ensure that that analysis is not overlooked in the dash for renewable energy and that no shortcuts are taken that allow developers to choose an easy financial solution.

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14:51 Olivia Blake (Labour)

I declare an interest, given that we are now talking about renewables: my husband is a company secretary of an organisation called Sheffield Renewables, which is a community benefit society that funds, develops, owns and operates renewable energy systems in Sheffield. Although I hope that Sheffield will not become the coastline—if we do everything right so that vast swathes of east Yorkshire, including Selby, are not under water—I thought that it would be prudent for me to declare that interest at this stage.

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14:55 Andrew Bowie (Conservative)

I turn to amendment 165. The Government are committed to ensuring high standards of environmental protection and the offshore wind environmental improvement package seeks to ensure that the acceleration of offshore wind can be delivered in a way that continues to protect the environment and to meet our ambitious net zero targets. Through the offshore wind environmental improvement package, we intend to enable the environmental protection of protected areas to be addressed sufficiently early in the pre-application planning process to inform adequate and ecologically robust mitigation and compensatory measures. That in turn should improve the quality of the information coming into the examination stage of an application. The package will enable the Government to improve environmental assessments for offshore wind projects to ensure that we have a consenting system that works for our marine environment.

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Andrew Bowie (Conservative)

Clause 251 enables the Secretary of State to make regulations for the purpose of setting our arrangements for emergency planning and response to marine oil pollution incidents. Currently, the emergency oil pollution planning and response regime applies to offshore oil and gas activities as well as harbours and onshore handling facilities. In recognising the energy transition and progress towards net zero, the clause will enable a pollution planning and response regime for emerging offshore technologies such as offshore carbon dioxide storage, combustible gas storage, and hydrogen production and storage.

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Andrew Bowie (Conservative)

Clause 253 will amend the 1998 Act to allow for the establishment of a new charging regime for activity related to the regulatory functions for the decommissioning of offshore oil and gas installations. The clause will also make amendments to future-proof the cost recovery mechanism in line with the “polluter pays” principle of environmental law, as already established. Maximising our cost recovery will enable us to ensure a sufficiently resourced regulator. That will ensure that we do not cause the industry to delay decommissioning projects, which would adversely affect the industry’s contributions to reducing emissions and achieving their net zero ambitions.

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15:20 Andrew Bowie (Conservative)

The schedule also introduces amendments in respect of the NSTA’s powers of revocation and partial revocation of a licence, intended to replace the existing after-the-event powers with before-the-event powers. The NSTA will be able to revoke a licence if its prior consent has not been obtained for a change of control. The NSTA will therefore be able to regulate the suitability of petroleum production licensees in a more robust and timely manner. This will reduce risk and boost confidence in a sector that will play a key part in helping the UK to achieve its net zero goals.

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