Dale Vince has urged Andy Burnham to allow more drilling for oil and gas in the North Sea.
The green energy entrepreneur said he had told Mr Burnham that the controversial Rosebank and Jackdaw projects should be approved, but only if the oil and gas produced were subject to price controls to make them cheaper than imported energy.
Speaking to BBC Newsnight, the Labour donor said: “We are using fossil fuels for the next couple of decades. That’s a reality. If we approach things differently, we can actually make sense of drilling the North Sea.”
“If we price-control it like we have our retail energy sector, we can actually save money. And that … would make more sense of Jackdaw and Rosebank.”
It represents an apparent change of position from Mr Vince, who previously said allowing new drilling in the North Sea “would be a betrayal of millions of us” and cast doubt over the financial benefit to The Treasury of approving Rosebank.
Downing Street must decide on whether to approve the two projects, which face trenchant opposition from green groups.
The Telegraph revealed this week that Mr Burnham was leaning towards approving drilling in the Jackdaw gas field. The fate of the Rosebank oil and gas project is less certain.
Mr Vince, who has donated £6m to Labour since 2013 via his energy company Ecotricity, is close to Mr Burnham, and was in Downing Street the day he took office.
He said he had told Mr Burnham to “finish the job the Tories started”. He added: “They imposed price controls on retail energy … Finish a job, impose price control on wholesale, and we can bring our bills down and keep them there.”
Price controls would save £10bn a year, Mr Vince claimed, which he said could be set aside to fund the future £50bn cost of decommissioning North Sea oil and gas fields.
“If we can also save money here and create some jobs. I’m up for it,” he said.
‘Price-fix the North Sea’
Mr Vince’s proposal for price controls on wholesale energy would shake up the entire industry and radically change the economics of the two North Sea projects.
He claimed oil and gas companies would welcome price controls, which would offer them a guaranteed price and profit margin.
“At the moment, they operate in a global market, which is a bit of a casino. Prices are up one minute, down the next minute. Guaranteed profits are the kind of things that businesses get out of bed for,” he said.
Mr Vince claimed consumers would also benefit, because bills would fall. He said: “At the moment, the global market sets the price, and it doesn’t matter how much we make here, we pay the global price.
