The UK needs better insulated homes to free us from Putin and the fossil fuel giants

theguardian.com:

With every new premiership comes new trials and tribulations. No one will be more aware of this than Liz Truss and her fresh cabinet, who have little choice but to hit the ground running with a plan to relieve the British public from the clutches of extortionate gas prices that have caused energy bills to spiral.

The cost of living crisis is due almost entirely to Putin’s war in Ukraine and his unrivalled chokehold on Europe’s gas supply. Soaring energy bills in the UK are being driven by international markets. Not, as some seem to think, by our inability to source more gas and increase its supply. Expanding drilling in the North Sea and fracking the English countryside would have negligible impact on the global shortfall and gas prices.

Continuing to pursue fossil fuels to meet an impossible end is fruitless, and panders only to the oil and gas industries, which continue to exaggerate the scale of reinvestment in “clean energy security” (despite what their well-placed advertising around Westminster tube station might imply).

Truss is likely to feel emboldened to make rash, unsustainable decisions about how to sort this mess out. The relentless fossil-fuel lobby will be warning her that cranking down our gas usage would be a grave error that will only worsen the impact on an already faltering economy. And short term support packages, although desperately needed, won’t tackle the underlying problem. A plan to offer£130bn to households is a sticking plaster on a gaping, growing wound. It’s not a stable, reliable solution that adequately responds to the unknown future risks of the international energy market.

The truth is that getting off gas is the only genuine way to become immune to its unpredictable supply and price. All