Trump: ‘Open the North Sea. Down with windmills!’
Donald Trump, the next president of the United States, has posted on his own social medium an advice to European countries: scrap all wind turbines in the North Sea and return to oil and gas extraction.
According to Trump, European countries should not invest more in renewable energy, but rather refocus on fossil fuels. In recent years, the North Sea has been playing an increasing role in the energy transition of countries such as the Netherlands, Belgium, Britain and Denmark. In a few years, for instance, the Netherlands will get half of its energy from the sea.
At the turn of the century, some 4 million barrels of oil a day were extracted from the North Sea, but that number has shrunk to around 1.3 million barrels. Large companies in the traditional fossil industry are moving away from the North Sea. This industry is facing even harder times as the UK government will levy extra taxes on oil and gas revenues to fund its own transition to low-carbon energy supplies.
(Fausto by Tagtik/Source: Volkskrant, De Morgen/Illustration picture: Pixabay)