As energy bills — and fossil fuel profits — soar, demonstrators demanded immediate action from PM Rishi Sunak.By Kenny Stancil ,
People in dozens of cities across the United Kingdom hit the streets on Saturday to demand immediate government action to prevent thousands of struggling workers from freezing to death in their homes this winter.
Demonstrators drew attention to the worsening crisis of fuel poverty and called on lawmakers to pick up more of the tab for skyrocketing bills, fund home insulation, and accelerate clean energy production — all of which would be made easier by enacting a stronger tax on oil and gas corporations’ windfall profits.
Up to 45 million people in the U.K. are facing fuel poverty as temperatures drop, according to one recent study. Meanwhile, heavily subsidized fossil fuel giants are raking in record profits, which they use to block policies that would facilitate a green transition and dismantle their destructive industry.
Saturday’s national day of action was organized by Warm This Winter, a coalition of more than 40 progressive advocacy groups urging immediate government intervention to slash energy bills now — through emergency grants and retrofitting — and to ramp up renewable power generation, which is essential to leaving behind increasingly expensive and planet-heating fossil fuels for good.
“As the nights draw in and more and more people face a difficult winter, we’re uniting to show that it doesn’t have to be this way — the solutions exist and we’ve known what they are for a long time,” the coalition’s website reads. “We demand action from this government to keep everyone warm this winter.”
RELATED STORY
Britain’s New PM Is as Wealthy as the King — and as Distant From the People
Why is Rishi Sunak so despised in the Tory Party and how did he nonetheless carry the day?By Gareth Dale , TRUTHOUT
Tessa Khan of Uplift, one of the organizers of Saturday’s rallies, said in a statement that “people only need to look at their bills to know that the U.K.’s energy system is broken.”
“This Day of Action is to give a voice to those who want change from this government,” said Khan. “Instead of spending billions of our money subsidizing gas fields and expensive gas imports, which will guarantee bills stay high for years, people want sensible, practical solutions to permanently lower our energy costs.”
“People want those in fuel poverty given the support they need to stay warm this winter; they want help to insulate their homes; and they want this government to unblock onshore renewable energy, which will provide our homes with cheaper energy for years to come,” Khan added. “This is about coming together to tell the government to look after the needs of British people, and not the needs of wealthy oil and gas companies.”
Friends of the Earth climate campaigner Sana Yusuf noted that “the U.K. government has had all year to come up with solutions to help people facing extortionate living costs, yet its financial support scheme is not nearly enough to stop millions going cold this winter.”
“Why there isn’t a plan to insulate U.K. homes and boost the production of renewable energy beggars belief,” Yusuf continued. “Both are popular with the public and can help to lower energy bills permanently.
“If government inaction has done anything,” said Yusuf, “it’s galvanized local communities who are turning out today because they know a better way forward exists.”
As part of the Warm This Winter day of action, Fuel Poverty Action and Don’t Pay U.K. — which seeks to build support for a mass energy bill non-payment strike — organized a series of “warm-ups,” wherein people who can’t afford to heat their homes gathered in public space to spread messages such as, “Freeze profit, not people.”
“There is plenty of money to ensure that everyone can keep warm this winter,” said Ruth London from Fuel Poverty Action. “It just needs to be taken from the oil and gas giants that are taking it from us.”
Economic and environmental justice advocates have argued that providing adequate financial support to those in need and achieving a long-term solution to the dirty energy sector’s life-threatening price gouging and pollution requires a break with the neoliberal policies that have exacerbated Britain’s historic cost-of-living crisis.
Hours after lawmakers from the ruling Conservative Party voted in late-October to make Rishi Sunak the U.K.’s third prime minister this year, Greenpeace activists occupied the lobby of Parliament and called for simultaneously tackling surging utility bills and the climate emergency by taxing fossil fuel profits and using the revenue to bankroll residential upgrades and expanded clean energy production.
“There is plenty of money to ensure that everyone can keep warm this winter. It just needs to be taken from the oil and gas giants that are taking it from us.”
Earlier this year, the U.K. Treasury estimated that the nation’s energy firms are on track to enjoy up to £170 billion ($191.9 billion) in excess profits — defined as the gap between money made now and what would have been expected based on price forecasts prior to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine — over the next two years.
A 25% windfall tax on oil and gas producers approved in July is expected to raise £5 billion ($5.6 billion) in its first year. However, the existing surtax on excess fossil fuel profits includes loopholes enabling companies to significantly reduce their tax bill by investing more in oil and gas extraction, which the industry claims will increase supply. The recently enacted windfall tax, which lasts through 2025, also exempts electricity generators, even though Treasury officials attribute approximately two-fifths of the £170 billion in excess profits to such actors.
Given that winter energy bills are projected to triple compared with last year, calls have been mounting to increase the windfall tax rate on excess fossil fuel profits and extend it to electricity generators benefiting from rising oil and gas prices.
While his immediate predecessor, Liz Truss, ardently opposed windfall taxes — asserting that they “send the wrong message to investors” — Sunak introduced the current windfall tax in May when he was then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s chancellor of the exchequer.
Noting that soaring energy prices and greenhouse gas pollution are both driven by fossil fuel dependence, Greenpeace U.K. in October implored Sunak to do the following “to lower our bills long-term and reduce our emissions”:
- Commit to investing £6 billion [$6.8 billion] immediately to kickstart a street-by-street insulation program to keep bills low for good;
- Shift to renewable energy, like wind and solar, which are cheaper and quicker to build than oil and gas; and
- Properly tax oil and gas companies’ excess profits so they pay their fair share, given how much money they’ve made off these crises.
“It’s time we have a government that brings down bills for good and plays its part in tackling the climate crisis,” said Greenpeace U.K., which is a member of the Warm This Winter coalition.
“Delay has cost lives. Chaos costs lives. And it will cost more lives this winter and every winter,” the group stressed. “No one benefits except the oil and gas profiteers. If the government were on the people’s side, the U.K. really could get on track to quitting oil, gas, and sky-high energy bills, forever.”
A Message from Truthout’s Executive Director
This piece was reprinted by Truthout with permission or license. It may not be reproduced in any form without permission or license from the source.
…READING LIST
WAR & PEACE
Chomsky: Advanced US Weaponry in Ukraine Is Sustaining Battlefield Stalemate
ECONOMY & LABOR
Overwhelming Majority of Voters Back Fines for Employers That Violate Labor Laws
LGBTQ RIGHTS
Dept of Education Opens Inquiry Into Texas District That Banned LGBTQ Books
RACIAL JUSTICE
Right-Wing Media Flaunted Their Racism in Smearing Brittney Griner’s Release
PRISONS & POLICING
These Incarcerated Organizers Won Their Freedom. Now They Face Deportation.
POLITICS & ELECTIONS
Jan. 6 Committee Recommends Charges That Could Prevent Trump From Running Again
RELATED STORIES
Outgoing Boris Johnson Government Passes Anti-Union Law Amid Looming Strike Wave
Since 1973, it has been illegal in the U.K. for employment agencies to farm out workers to break strikes — until now.By Sasha Abramsky , TRUTHOUT
Liz Truss Is Roiling the British Economy in Her Zeal to Serve the 1 Percent
The U.K. prime minister had said the £45 billion giveaway to the rich was just the start. Then she was forced to U-turn.By Sasha Abramsky , TRUTHOUT
Britain’s Economic Unraveling May Be Boris Johnson’s Real Legacy
The combination of Brexit, the aftereffects of COVID-19 and the war in Ukraine has left the British economy weak.By Sasha Abramsky , TRUTHOUT
LATEST STORIES
Israel Deports Palestinian Human Rights Lawyer Who Sent War Crimes Case to ICC
Salah Hammouri had been held in Israeli prisons without charge or trial since March.By Mariam Barghouti , MONDOWEISS
The Left Can Support Protesters in China Without Shilling for US Imperialism
Chinese workers and Uyghurs need solidarity from leftists worldwide — not an escalation in anti-Chinese hostility.By Daniel Falcone , TRUTHOUT
Brother of World Cup Whistleblower Imprisoned in Qatar Speaks Out
Abdullah Ibhais’s family and human rights organization FairSquare says FIFA is complicit in his imprisonment.By Amy Goodman , DEMOCRACYNOW!
Brittney Griner’s Supporters Secured Her Freedom
Journalist Dave Zirin says the sports world was slow to rally to Griner’s cause due to sexism, racism and homophobia.By Amy Goodman , DEMOCRACYNOW!
Is Iran in the Midst of a Feminist Revolution?
Many of Iran’s most vocal feminists are languishing in prison. Feminists worldwide should push for their release.By Frieda Afary , TRUTHOUT
Critics Slam NYC Plan to Involuntarily Hospitalize Those With Mental Illness
Rights groups are instead demanding better access to support for people struggling with mental illness and homelessness.By Amy Goodman , DEMOCRACYNOW!
We Need Harm Reduction With a Liberatory Vision
“We’re going to have to break the rules,” says Shira Hassan.By Kelly Hayes , TRUTHOUT
Global Coalition Calls for More Advertisers to Boycott Twitter
Musk is reinstating accounts for users previously booted for violating violence and hate speech rules.By Mike Ludwig , TRUTHOUT
Kevin Johnson Is Set to Be Executed Tuesday. Will Missouri Stay Execution?
Family members, lawmakers and advocates are urging Missouri’s governor to grant Johnson clemency.By Amy Goodman , DEMOCRACYNOW!
Rent Is Too Damned High: US Tenants Mobilize to Demand Rent Controls
Tenants nationwide are organizing to win affordable housing, limit rental fees and protect their homes and communities.By Eleanor J. Bader ,
