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Jacob Rees-Mogg is one of the most recognizable politicians in Britain, known for his double-breasted suits, exaggerated upper-class accent and love of archaic parliamentary traditions. He is an ardent supporter of fossil fuels.
In an interview with a radio station earlier this year, Rees-Mogg said that they needed to think about how to get security of supply from the North Sea. We will need fossil fuels in the interim and we should use ours that we have available.
Energy security has become paramount for politicians in the region because of Russia's use of natural gas. Although the UK hosted a global climate change summit in Glasgow a year ago, the decision to make Rees-Mogg secretary of state at the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy has caused alarm among environmental activists.
"Rees-Mogg is the last person who should be in charge of the energy brief at the worst possible moment." It will either be a massive own goal for Truss to tackle the cost of living crisis or he will have to learn the hard way as he gets to grips with the issues facing our country.
In a 2013 column for the Telegraph newspaper, Rees-Mogg blamed climate alarmism for pushing support for expensive nuclear and wind power over cheap, but polluting coal and natural gas. The climate group DeSmog has compiled a long list of comments made by Rees-Mogg about climate change and the ability of policies to address it.
The Conservative-led governments in charge since 2010 have been criticized for policies that don't match the ambition of the net-zero goal. Funding for energy efficiency measures was gutted and a gas storage site was allowed to close.
Graham Stuart was appointed to be minister for Climate and to serve in her cabinet. A seasoned supporter of climate policies into the center of government will help keep the UK focused on its emissions-cutting goals.
Josh Buckland, senior fellow for energy and environment at Policy Exchange, said that Stuart was a long-standing supporter of climate action. It is clear that we need a strong voice on climate on a daily basis.
In the last few years, Rees-Mogg's views seem to have changed.
He laid out three pillars of energy policy in an interview with the Conservative Home news outlet. In his opinion, all three of those aspects are dependent on more oil and gas being pulled from the North Sea.
The green blob believes that UK energy is bad in principle, so it is better to bring it in from other countries. He said that he had never seen the logic of that. It doesn't affect net zero. It is more eco-friendly to use gas you have on hand than to import gas from other countries.
The leader of the Conservative Party in the House of Commons, who had a career in investment management before entering parliament in 2010, supports the practice of fracking under the ground in order to extract gas from unconventional rocks. He said that fears about the potential for earthquakes may be overblown.
The question is whether it is safe to do. "Rees-Mogg spoke." It is not the San Francisco earthquake that people hear about, it is a two on the scale.
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