22 September 2022

Green Party co-leader Adrian Ramsay said: 

“Fracking will deepen our country’s dependence on fossil fuels. It will not bring down fuel bills for people who are struggling and will cause more damage to local communities and to the climate.

“The government has chosen to ignore warnings from its own advisers that fracking cannot restart without significant dangers of renewed localised earthquakes.[1] 

“The most effective and sustainable way of bringing down the cost of living is to invest in insulating houses and massively ramping up home-grown renewable energy. Fracking is an expensive and dangerous distraction from that urgent goal.”

Notes

1

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/sep/15/liz-truss-to-lift-fracking-ban-despite-little-progress-on-earthquake-risk

For more information or to arrange an interview contact the press office on press@greenparty.org.uk or call 0203 691 9401

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21 September 2022

Caroline Lucas, Green Party MP for Brighton Pavilion, has the following response to BEIS Secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg’s statement on energy bills support for businesses:

“No wonder Jacob Rees-Mogg clearly wished to avoid Parliamentary scrutiny on this critical energy crisis support for businesses – there is an energy efficiency-shaped hole at the heart of this plan that needs to be exposed.

“The cheapest and cleanest energy for businesses is the energy they don’t use – so why is Rees-Mogg’s plan utterly devoid of essential energy efficiency measures to help businesses reduce their dependence on costly fossil fuels, slashing bills and carbon emissions at the same time?

“Businesses themselves know the importance of net zero, even if climate sceptic Rees-Mogg doesn’t – and on a day when over 100 of the UK’s top businesses have called specifically for energy efficiency, a roll-out of renewables and large-scale industrial decarbonisation, this plan strips out green levies and continues with fossil fuel business-as-usual.

“The first rule of business is to plan ahead – and for this plan to send businesses off a cliff edge come April, when we know this energy crisis could get much worse in the months and years ahead, is irresponsible in the extreme.

“We can’t expect small businesses to just keep lurching from one crisis to another – from Brexit, to Covid, and now an energy bills crisis. There are so many ways in which businesses could have been supported for the long term today: an extension of business rates relief for all SMEs and pubs; a suspension of Covid loan debt repayments; funding and incentives to help with planned energy use reduction. Instead all they get is sweeping fossil-fuelled short-termism.”

ENDS

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8 September 2022

The Green Party of England and Wales has expressed sincere condolences to the entire Royal Family following the extremely sad news of the death of Queen Elizabeth II. 

Co-leader Adrian Ramsay said: “This is a moment of great sadness for our nation. 

“The Queen served this country tirelessly over her 70-year reign, bearing witness to the fall of the Berlin Wall, invention of the internet and the first man on the moon.

“We send strength and compassion to the Royal family at this difficult time.”

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8 September 2022

• Truss plan leaves energy unaffordable for millions of households
• Only renewables and insulating people’s homes will help tackle both cost of living crisis and climate crisis

Green Party co-leader Adrian Ramsay has slammed the Prime Minister’s plan to cap energy costs through an increase in government debt while pushing for exploiting more oil and gas.

Ramsay said:

“The Truss plan still leaves energy unaffordable for millions of households. It risks forcing many people to choose whether to heat or eat this winter. This is why the Green Party has proposed to cap energy prices at the October 2021 level of £1,277.

“Nor is there any plan to insulate our leaky homes to make them warmer and healthier and hardly anything on investing in renewables – the cheapest way to generate electricity.

“The plan to grant 100 new licences to oil and gas companies to expand their climate destroying industry and continue raking in eye watering dirty profits is inexplicable while we still hold the COP Presidency, and when we know that renewables are far cheaper. 

“The only logical explanation for this reckless plan, along with cutting the so-called green levy, is that Truss is making an ideological choice to curry favour with friends and Tory Party donors in the oil and gas industry. 

“The decision to end the ban on fracking will only deepen our country’s dependence on fossil fuels, will not bring down fuel bills for people who are struggling, and will cause yet more damage to local communities and to the climate. Even the outgoing Prime Minister described such a plan as ‘dubious.’ [2]

“The most effective and sustainable way of bringing down the cost of living is to invest in insulating houses and massively ramping up renewable energy. Fracking is an expensive and dangerous distraction from that urgent goal.

“Greens have a fair plan to tackle energy costs now, create lower bills in future and ensure we move towards a cleaner, greener and cheaper energy supply.” 

The Green Party has proposed to cap energy prices at the October 2021 level of £1,277 while higher income households pay progressively more as they use more energy [1]. The plan would be funded by a heavier windfall tax on the fossil fuel industry and taxes on the wealthy. The Greens are also pressing for a nationwide insulation programme and large scale investment in renewables.

ENDS

Notes

1

Greens call for Big Five energy companies to be brought into public ownership to stabilise market and protect consumers | The Green Party

For more information or to arrange an interview contact the press office on press@greenparty.org.uk or call 0203 691 9401

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5 September 2022

The Green Party has warned the Liz Truss premiership risks further fueling the climate crisis and worsening inequality throughout the country. 

The Greens are calling on the new prime minister to deal with the immediate fallout of the cost of living crisis and tackle the climate emergency by lowering the energy price cap to the October 2021 rate, beginning a massive nationwide insulation programme, and investing in more renewable energy [1].

Green Party co-leader Carla Denyer said: 

“Liz Truss being selected to become Prime Minister, by such a small and unrepresentative group of people, is a disaster for the UK and the climate.

“Truss’ reported plans to encourage the oil and gas industry to extract more fossil fuels from the North Sea [2] will do nothing to help households as they struggle with eye-watering energy bills this winter, but will fuel the climate crisis. 

“Burning more fossil fuels will simply speed up climate breakdown, giving us more extreme heat, floods, storms and food shortages in the UK and across the world. 

“This reckless plan, along with promises to cut the so-called green levy, demonstrates that Truss is making an ideological choice to curry favour with friends and Tory Party donors in the oil and gas industry. 

“What is needed is to return energy to a more affordable level, which is why the Green Party  has put forward its proposal to restore the energy price cap to the October 2021 rate of £1,277 and implement rapid investment in a nationwide home insulation programme while developing more renewable energy.  This will provide the immediate action needed to help people right now, as well as looking ahead to ensure costs and emissions are kept to a minimum in the years to come.

“We can invest in a cleaner, greener, more affordable future. Whether we do so is a political choice. We urge Liz Truss to take a path that helps create a fairer society while tackling the climate crisis.”  

ENDS

Notes

1

https://www.greenparty.org.uk/news/2022/08/17/greens-call-for-big-five-energy-companies-to-be-brought-into-public-ownership/

2

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/aug/30/liz-truss-oil-drilling-tory-leadership-energy

For more information or to arrange an interview contact the press office on press@greenparty.org.uk or call 0203 691 9401

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