29 June 2010 - Keith Taylor champions renewable energy and new green jobs over oil plans

When Hampshire and the South East’s Green MEP Keith Taylor tours Hampshire this Friday (1), he will warn that oilmen risk turning England’s southern counties into ‘one big oil field’. The MEP points to a new trend for looking for oil here now that North Sea oil is becoming too expensive to access.

Australian oil firm Norwest is reported to have found seven new sites in the Wessex basin, including under the western tip of the Isle of Wight (2).

Keith comments: “My greatest concern is that oil companies will earmark sites in Hampshire – both onshore and off-shore – for new drilling which could conflict with renewable energy plans.

“For example, energy company Eneco is planning to build a giant offshore wind farm off the Isle of Wight, which could be up and running by 2018. This kind of forward thinking development must be given priority over unsustainable new oil ventures in the region.”

A recent report by the Offshore Valuation Group has recently estimated that using just one-third of the UK’s wind, wave and tidal resource could unlock the electricity equivalent of one billion barrels of oil a year, matching North Sea oil and gas production, and could reduce CO2 emissions by 1.1 billion tonnes by 2050 – and creating 145,000 jobs in the process.

The Green MEP continues: “In light of the Deepwater Horizon oil disaster and volatile oil prices, the need for urgent change away from fossil fuel-powered energy systems is clearer than ever. Investment in an energy system based on renewables and energy efficiency can bring this change – creating new green jobs and helping to stabilise the economy in the process.

“Global Climate Network has found that more than 20 million new employment opportunities could be created between now and 2020 in low-carbon energy industries across nine leading economies.”

ENDS

NOTES TO EDITORS

1) Keith Taylor MEP is spending Friday 2 July 2010 touring Hampshire and meeting with constituents and community groups: Havant Friends of the Earth, the Portsmouth Palestine Solidarity Group, and Portsmouth Climate Action Network in the morning, and the Southampton and Winchester Visitors Group (who support refugees and asylum-seekers) and Save Our Loddon Environment in the afternoon.

2) Southampton Daily Echo 13 Apr 2010 – http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/8095631.__6bn_oil_bonanza_for_Hampshire_and_the_Isle_of_Wight/?action=complain&cid=8442320