Climate activist and Labour Party donor Dale Vince has explained his shock U-turn on North Sea oil and gas operations.
Speaking to GB News, the green entrepreneur argued Britain should use its domestic resources better to cut energy bills and protect jobs.
In April, Mr Vince had described plans to expand North Sea drilling as a “betrayal” of Britain's climate commitments.
He has also said there was “no economic case” for opening up new sites because oil and gas sold into global markets would not lower UK energy bills.
Nevertheless, he now supports developing the already established Rosebank and Jackdaw North Sea oil and gas fields.
“I’m saying that they actually would make economic sense. There would be a case for them,” he said.
“We could bring our bills down. At the moment, there is no case. And I think that would change.”
Mr Vince said his new position was to introduce wholesale price controls for North Sea energy, rather than letting global markets dictate prices.
“If we extend that price control concept to Jackdaw and Rosebank, they could make economic sense, so there could be a case for doing them,” the green entrepreneur said.
He said the proposals could let Britain benefit from domestic production while lowering consumer costs.
Mr Vince argued that Britain would continue to use oil and gas for years to come, making domestic production more attractive if it could also deliver cheaper energy.
“The two arguments advanced for new drilling are firstly that we can get our bills down. That's not true under the current system,” he said.
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“But if we control the price and we can actually save money by drilling here... it makes sense to make them here.”
Under his proposal, the price would be based on the cost of production plus a “reasonable profit margin”, which he suggested could be around 10 per cent.
“We can set the price ourselves based on the cost of production, adding a margin, a reasonable profit margin like 10 per cent, for example,” he said.
Mr Vince said the approach could also help preserve employment and investment in the North Sea as production declines.
“In a very volatile world for the North Sea, particularly as output declines, it gets harder and harder to justify continued operation in a volatile market,” he said, adding: “So it makes great business sense to do this.”
The climate activist insisted the change did not mean abandoning his environmental principles.
“I’m actually a practical, pragmatic person. I'm not some kind of eco idealist beyond everything else.”
Mr Vince later stressed that he was not calling for unrestricted drilling of new sites.
“I’m not calling for drilling in the North Sea,” he insisted.
Instead, the green entrepreneur said his support for Rosebank and Jackdaw depends on his proposed price-control system.
Mr Vince also said he had put the proposal to Prime Minister Andy Burnham and that it was “being considered”.
Mr Burnham has pledged to take a “pragmatic approach” to the North Sea, explaining: “There is a resource there. When people are struggling, we can’t ignore that.”
However, the Prime Minister is now expected to delay an announcement on new projects over “optics” concerns.
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