A video, provided to the Guardian by a whistleblower, shows Rees-Mogg telling an all-staff meeting at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy on Wednesday that the public must be convinced that fossil fuels are the answer. In it, he says they will be “handing out a lot of money” to get Britain to produce more gas and that he knows some will say this is “not free market enough”. Rees-Mogg said his department’s mission would be to “return to national security in the context of energy to use as much of our own resources as possible”, adding: “It is arguably more environmentally friendly to use our own our natural gas which must not be liquefied, need not be transported thousands of miles, except to pump natural gas from abroad, and therefore if we want to be both prosperous and green, we must use our own resources.’ He added: “And that’s why I said we should get every cubic inch of natural gas out of the North Sea, because it’s actually better for our economy and it’s greener. And that’s going to be a challenge for us to go out into the country because one side will say we’re not austere enough and the other side will say we’re not free market enough.” But critics said Rees-Mogg’s department’s mission should not be to exploit more fossil fuels but to boost investment in renewable energy and insulation. Greenpeace’s head of policy, Rebecca Newsom, said: “The business department of government should be the hub for the high-tech, clean industrial revolution we desperately need to cut emissions, lower bills and create jobs. work. Instead, it sounds like Jacob Rees-Mogg wants to drag it back in time, turning it into the political arm of the fossil fuel industry. “And so we have ridiculous greenwashing about fossil fuels being green being taken seriously in the heart of government and a complete failure to understand the direction the world economy is heading. If the government persists in this wrong turn, we will all be worse off except the fossil fuel giants who are already profiting from this crisis.” Fellow politicians said they were not surprised that Rees-Mogg acknowledged that those fossil fuel policies lacked public support. Greens MP Caroline Lucas said: “This leaked video just confirms Jacob Rees-Mogg’s utterly disgraceful climate-destroying intentions – he is the worst possible energy secretary at the worst possible time. “More North Sea gas doesn’t make bills cheaper, it doesn’t provide energy security and as Rees-Mogg himself now acknowledges, it clearly has no public support. What it does is add fuel to the fire of the climate emergency when we have a vanishingly small window of opportunity to deal with it and when it is nine times more expensive than renewable energy. This gas needs to be kept deep in the ground and if he doesn’t understand why, it needs to be kept away from the government.” Liberal Democrat energy and climate change spokeswoman Wera Hobhouse said: “The idea that more gas is the solution to a gas crisis is ridiculous. No wonder Jacob Rees-Mogg was the first to say it would be a tough sell. The Conservatives themselves have even said that this will make no difference to the price of energy, but it is clear that they are happy to put their own ideology before people and the climate. “To reduce bills we need significant investment in new renewable energy and action to make our homes warmer to reduce our addiction to natural gas.” Scientists have also warned that permitting new oil and gas fields in the North Sea is incompatible with the UK’s climate commitments to limit warming to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels and achieve net zero by 2050. Rees-Mogg’s team said the Foreign Secretary and Prime Minister believe that tapping domestic oil and gas reserves is vital to energy security and supply and that they believe it is greener to use our own sources than to we import from abroad.
