Letters: Let’s get fracking

Get fracking

Sir: All credit to The Spectator for grabbing the cancelled Tory leadership debate slot (‘The final three’, 23 July) and for quizzing the contenders on the massive cost of net zero. Rishi Sunak’s response was particularly disappointing. Here is a man who has financial acumen and who has spent his entire cabinet career in the Treasury. Yet he would have us believe that the offshore wind industry, whose biggest costs are incurred in erecting huge structures of steel, iron, plastic/resin and concrete, has somehow contrived to cut those costs by nearly three-quarters over a decade. Unfortunately strike prices around £40/MWh which have been obtained for some recent offshore wind projects are not a binding commitment on the successful bidders to deliver energy at that price. If Sunak does believe that offshore wind-turbine costs have been transformed, it raises the question of why, as chancellor, he did nothing to reduce the subsidies the industry extracts from consumers.

Liz Truss appears a little more willing to challenge the powerful renewables lobby. However there is still no sign that she is prepared to see wealthy green Tories run into the arms of the Lib Dems in exchange for earning the gratitude of the 84 per cent of Red Wall voters who are not prepared to pay more than £1,000 for a heat pump. Reducing obscenely high energy costs promises to be the biggest challenge for the new prime minister. It would be reassuring if Truss could start by apologising for the past two decades, during which our senior politicians prioritised grandstanding on climate change over our country’s energy security. She should then slam the brakes on net zero, commission an independent review of that policy’s genuine costs and benefits, and get fracking.

Richard North

Hayling Island, Hants

Transferable vote

Sir: Given that MPs have made such a hash of providing a choice of leader that reflects their Conservative constituents’ desire for a change in the guard, is there anything to stop Tory members from spoiling their ballots and writing ‘Kemi’ or ‘Penny’ on them?

Charlotte Black

Guildford