Dale Vince, Ecotricity founder, Labour donor and Britain’s best-known renewable energy entrepreneur, has told BBC Newsnight he’s changed his mind on new North Sea oil and gas drilling, just weeks after publicly opposing it.
Vince, who donated over £6m to Labour and its MPs through Ecotricity since 2013, including £20,000 to Andy Burnham’s earlier leadership bid, was in Downing Street when Burnham became prime minister last month. Faisal Islam pressed him directly on the reversal: “Looks like you might be losing this argument on Jack Door, at least as regards to gas.”
“Well, I’m not convinced actually and it will still have to gain planning consent,” Vince replied. “But look, I have a different position perhaps than the one you expect me to have. There’s a way that we can make sense of this North Sea puzzle. We can actually bring our bills down, which we can’t at the moment, unless we do this one thing, which is price control the North Sea.”
The actual argument: price controls, not drilling itself
Vince’s case is that the North Sea’s gas currently sells at the global market price regardless of production costs here, meaning UK households get no benefit from domestic supply. His fix: apply the same price controls to wholesale energy that already exist in the retail sector.
“At the moment, the global market sets the price and it doesn’t matter how much we make here. We pay the global price. If we price control it like we have our retail energy sector, we can actually save money and that makes more sense of the North Sea and it would make more sense of Jack Door and Rosebank.”
Islam noted this looked like a clear reversal from his recent social media position, entirely against reopening oil and gas. Vince didn’t dispute that. “The argument that we can save money by drilling is nonsense. What President Trump just said on your show, by the way, is just the height of stupidity. The North Sea is not one of the biggest finds. It might have been 60 years ago. Now it’s got barely anything left.” He then laid out the logic again: reform wholesale pricing first, and Rosebank and Jack Dow, both already licensed, start to make economic sense. “This secondary argument that’s being made for new drilling, that if we’re going to use fossil fuels, we might as well make them here as to bring them from abroad, that makes more sense and comes to the fore. We will use fossil fuels for a number of years to come and it makes sense to make them here if we can also save money here and create some jobs. I’m up for it.”
Has he actually spoken to Burnham?
Pressed on whether the prime minister had changed his mind, Vince said no, he’s the one trying to persuade Burnham. “I’m trying to persuade the prime minister to do this one big thing, which is to reform the energy market by putting price controls into our wholesale energy sector. If we do that, we can change the outlook for the North Sea. It’s fundamental. If we were going to carry on as the Tories would have had, we’d have issued hundreds of new licenses to no economic effect at all.”
Islam pushed on the mechanics: isn’t this effectively quasi-nationalisation, given private companies won’t accept controlled prices when they can get over $100 a barrel on the open market? Vince disagreed, pointing to retail energy as precedent: “The Tories imposed price control in the retail energy sector. They allow a 2% profit margin for multinational companies that operate in retail energy here in our country. There’s no difference in the North Sea. We can impose price controls on them, allow them a decent profit margin. Of course, they’ll do business here because actually they’re guaranteed that price. At the moment, they operate in a global market, which is a bit of a casino.” He pointed to the offshore wind farm behind him during the interview as an example of tens of billions already invested under a comparable system.
‘I’m up for it’ vs ‘don’t put words in my mouth’
Asked flatly whether he now supports further drilling in existing licensed areas, Vince framed it as conditional rather than enthusiastic: “I’m saying that it actually can make sense if we do price control of the North Sea existing. We can save 10 billion pounds a year. And by the way, we’ve got a 50 billion bill coming for decommissioning. No government has taken responsibility for that. We can take some of that 10 billion saving and stick it into a fund for the next 10 years and be ready when the time comes. And if Rosebank and Jack Door are going to go ahead, they will actually save money for the country. That makes sense to me.” He added the caveat driving the whole position: “We must not row back on our commitments to net zero. Provided we don’t, then we will use fossil fuels for some years to come.”
Islam put the sharpest question of the interview directly: given the recent wildfires and heatwaves strengthening the case for net zero, wasn’t this an odd moment to be softening on drilling? “Does Dale Vince say drill baby drill basically?”
“No, no, no, no. You’re not putting them words in my mouth. What I’m saying is… the totality of what I’m saying is 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, getting more out of the North Sea. Rose Bank and Jack, I’m not really bothered. They’re already licensed. If they can get planned permission, no problem. They can bring our bills down. But if we don’t make this change, we can’t bring our bills down, whether it’s new or old fossil fuels or even green energy.”
He made a broader point about how green energy is currently priced: “We allow the global price of gas to set the price of the wind and the sun in our country, which is why green energy isn’t bringing our bills down. That’s why we need energy market reform, wholesale price fixing, solve the North Sea problem, and don’t forget our commitments to net zero.” He repeated the condition once more before closing: “Provided we don’t row back on net zero, we remain committed and the prime minister mentioned it earlier and we have to accelerate. Provided we do that, then it makes sense to be pragmatic about the North Sea, change things so that we can bring our bills down and everybody wins.”
Islam thanked him for clarifying, noting he’d asked the question twice because the shift seemed genuinely significant. Vince has previously been more visible campaigning against fossil fuel expansion than backing it, including offering to fund Count Binface’s Clacton campaign against Farage, so a prominent green donor now arguing new North Sea licences “make sense” under the right pricing model is a genuine shift in tone, whatever the conditions attached to it.
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