SSE chief says windfall tax may hinder work on UK energy self-reliance

theguardian.com:

The chief executive of the energy supplier SSE has said a windfall tax could damage Britain’s progress on building up domestic sources of electricity and gas as he pledged £24bn of investment.

Alistair Phillips-Davies has said a proposed one-off levy on energy companies could hinder work to build windfarms and other sources of domestic supplies.

SSE on Wednesday promised to spend £24bn this decade including on renewable energy and low carbon projects in a move lauded by the government.

It comes as the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, is widely expected to unveil a package of measures on Thursday to ease the pressure of rising costs on household energy bills. This could in part be paid for by a windfall tax on North Sea oil and gas producers, which have enjoyed outsized profits during the energy crisis.

This week, it emerged the Treasury was also considering widening the scope of the tax to include electricity generators, which may have landed £10bn in excess profits due to surging prices.

Phillips-Davies said the government’s “clear and consistent” policy on boosting green energy had allowed SSE to develop the world’s biggest offshore windfarm at Dogger Bank, located 81 miles (130km) off the north-east coast of England. The government is trying to increase domestic energy supplies after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The SSE chief executive added: “We’ve got a cost of living crisis included in that … crisis around gases and imported energy from the sort of places that we don’t want to deal with any more. Therefore, we can be building those assets and doing that quickly – one to alleviate this problem as quickly as possible now, but also to make sure that they don’t return.

“I would have thought any government would view that as a huge