While the Tories dawdle over Russian gas, we have a £28bn plan to make energy cheap – and green

theguardian.com:

At this perilous moment, we are faced with three interlocking energy crises. An energy security crisis, with the invasion of Ukraine demonstrating to Europe that it must wean itself off Russian gas and oil, and quickly. A price crisis of soaring, sky-high bills. And the climate crisis, which the UN warned just last month is even more advanced and dangerous than we thought.

Some will say we cannot confront all three together. There are voices on the right of politics already growing louder, saying it’s necessary to sacrifice or slow down our climate ambitions so we can lock in energy security.

But they are profoundly wrong. Doubling down on fossil fuels, for example, through a fracking-style dash for gas which some on the Conservative benches are proposing, would be a disastrous response to each of these crises.

For starters, what is the quickest way to get us off Russian gas and allow us control over our own energy supply? By pressing ahead with building the 649 onshore wind and solar projects that already have planning permission in the UK. They could come on stream within two years and would fully replace Russian gas imports, but are being held back by the de-facto moratorium imposed by the government in 2015, when it introduced draconian planning restrictions for new windfarms and cut onshore windfarms off from investment in renewables. Fracking would take at least a decade to arrive, as the prime minister was warned this week by his own business secretary, and the average time between new exploration and production in the North Sea is 28 years.

It’s the same story on price. The lowest-cost fuels available are now wind and solar. Even before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine sent gas prices spiralling further, generating