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CAMPAIGNERS attacked the government for “dishing out licences to climate criminals” today after a Tory donor-owned firm, previously fined for illegal flaring, secured a licence to drill for fossil fuels.
The government green lit new licences to 17 oil and gas companies in the North Sea in the last week.
Among the companies was EnQuest Heather, a subsidiary of EnQuest, owned by Tory donor Amjad Bseisu.
Since 2013, Mr Bseisu has donated £480,721 to the Conservative Party in cash and contributions in kind.
EnQuest was previously issued a fine of £150,000 by the North Sea Transition Authority after it had knowingly breached gas flaring limits.
It was found to be illegally flaring an excess of 262 tonnes of gas on the Magnus Field between November 30 and December 1 2021.
The fine was just 15 per cent of the maximum penalty that could have been applied.
Good Law Project’s legal director Emma Dearnaley said: “The government’s backing of a North Sea oil and gas extravaganza to help corporations and a wealthy few make huge profits instead of investing in cheaper and greener energy sources will come at huge cost to our environment and our economy.
“Do ministers think this a price worth paying just to keep their party donors happy?”
Good Law Project will take the government to court later this month with Friends of the Earth and ClientEarth, challenging its “threadbare” strategy to reach net zero in carbon emissions by 2050.
Greenpeace UK’s senior climate campaigner Philip Evans said: “You’d be forgiven for thinking that the Tory Party might have an agenda when dishing out these new oil and gas licences.
“But when those who are awarded the licences have a track record of reckless and polluting behaviour like breaching flaring rules all while bankrolling the Conservative government, of course eyebrows are going to be raised.”
A Just Stop Oil spokesperson said that the campaign group’s demand to halt the burning of fossil fuels is “supported by the world’s top scientists, the International Energy Agency, the UN and the government’s own advisers.
They said: “So what is Sunak playing at? Dishing out licences to climate criminals who — what a surprise — happen to be Tory donors?
“It’s time for all politicians to stand up to the oil barons and protect people everywhere.”
