Ross Clark Ross Clark

The Surrey oil judgment undermines our democracy

(Photo: Getty)

The Conservatives are in favour of granting licences for new oil and gas extraction; Labour is against it. But what does it matter what either party have put in their manifestos when the Supreme Court has just asserted the right to decide Britain’s energy policy for us? In a judgment this morning the Supreme Court decided that Surrey County Council was wrong to determine a planning application for a small oilfield near Gatwick Airport without considering the carbon emissions which would be released in burning the product. 

Environmentalists will cheer today’s judgment but they shouldn’t really, because it is fundamentally undemocratic

Council planners had taken into account emissions from the drilling itself, but not the carbon dioxide which would be released when the oil is taken elsewhere and used to power cars, buses or whatever. Planning permission has effectively been rescinded for this small project. But the judgment has wide implications for the whole of Britain’s oil and gas industry.

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