Climate Expert HUMILIATES Julia Hartley-Brewer Over FOSSIL FUELS!

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: I believe that is his correct job title. He's asking a lot of criticism from people saying we need to be drilling more in the North Sea. Reform have said that. The Tories have now said that. Ed Miliband, of course, has banned any new drilling, any new exploration of the oil and gas availability in the North Sea, even though we're now importing it from Norway, where they're basically drilling right next door to where we're allowed to drill. Now, even the chief executive of Renewable UK, it's the wind farm trade body, the least, you know, big oil company. [00:00:31] Speaker 2: Comment where you're watching from. Don't forget to like and subscribe so you don't miss the next one. In this video, we're looking at a heated exchange involving Julia Hartley Brewer, where the claim is that her position on energy policy is strongly challenged with facts and evidence. Beyond the personalities, this is framed as part of a wider debate about fossil fuels, renewable energy, and how media figures shape public understanding of climate policy. So as this plays out, pay attention to how the argument is presented. Not just what is said, but the framing behind it. [00:01:01] Speaker 1: I believe that is his correct job title. He's facing a lot of criticism from people saying we need to be drilling more in the North Sea. Reform have said that. The Tories have now said that. Ed Miliband, of course, has banned any new drilling, any new exploration of the oil and gas availability in the North Sea, even though we're now importing it from Norway, where they're basically drilling right next door to where we're allowed to drill. Now, even the chief executive of Renewable UK, it's the wind farm trade body, the least, you know, big oil company you could imagine in the world, Tara Singh. She has said that the crisis in the Middle East demonstrates how vulnerable Britain is to energy price shocks, and she says that we should be allowing more North Sea drilling to boost homegrown energy. If even the wind farm lady is saying this, Donica, well, we should be doing it, right? [00:01:50] Speaker 3: Well, the wind farm lady is actually a former Shell lobbyist. [00:01:54] Speaker 1: Oh, well, big oil. [00:01:55] Speaker 3: And big oil is actually on the board of renewables. Equinor is on the board. But she's absolutely right. Britain is being hammered yet again by an oil crisis. I'm old enough. I'm 67 years old. I have lived through an oil crisis every 10 years. And the single lesson out of that is we need to get ourselves off the addiction of oil. [00:02:13] Speaker 1: No, we need to be self-sufficient in oil. That's the answer to that. [00:02:17] Speaker 3: Okay, look at America. America is self-sufficient in oil. What's happening in the current crisis? It's an exporter of oil. Drivers are being hammered. People who are dependent on oil are being hammered. [00:02:26] Speaker 1: Not to the extent that we're going to be hammered. [00:02:27] Speaker 3: They're being hammered. Exactly, because we haven't switched fast enough. Okay, right. So what we need to do, Britain, the cost of the last oil crisis, Russia, was £100 billion to the UK economy. The Climate Change Committee has estimated that the cost of investment for net zero by 2050 is the exact same amount. [00:02:49] Speaker 1: Those estimates are a complete load of abject nonsense and it's actually way more than that. Here's the thing. You can say, well, we should... The answer to that... And this is something Ed Minniband says as well. I mean, it's almost like having him in the studio. I'm sure you can eat a bacon sandwich. But the argument that, oh, well, you know, we're not self-sufficient in oil and gas. He says we're beholden to despots and to tyrants and petro states. But the answer is there is nobody remotely sensible who knows anything about energy, who doesn't think that we are going to be reliant on fossil fuels for the majority of our energy needs for the next few decades at the very, very least. Why do you and Ed Minniband apparently think anything different and what do you base that on? [00:03:31] Speaker 3: Because basically what we're saying is when you're investing billions of pounds on behalf of this country, we should be investing in energy that's cheaper and more reliable and not susceptible to international... [00:03:41] Speaker 1: It's not cheaper and it's not more reliable. [00:03:42] Speaker 3: Do you accept that in an oil crisis we are hammered because of the cost of fossil fuels? Do you accept in an oil crisis... [00:03:48] Speaker 1: I accept because we haven't invested in our own ability to get fossil fuels. [00:03:50] Speaker 3: If we have our own... Our own fossil fuels, 80% of them, are exported. But they don't have to be in a crisis. Because we don't have refineries and they're... Do you want to privatise... Do you want to nationalise the industry? No, I don't want to nationalise... [00:04:02] Speaker 1: However, as we see in crisis... Because that's the only way... As we see in crises that countries can prioritise their own needs. [00:04:08] Speaker 3: That is the only way that if you want to get costs down, you have to nationalise it. [00:04:12] Speaker 1: Donica, at no point in the next 20 years or in the next 24 years, by 2050, are we going to have every single vehicle on the roads, every train, every factory, every single home, the heating in every home going to be run not on fossil fuels. That is true, and we still have fossil fuels. So this is a load of nonsense. We're going to run... You can't build concrete, you can't build steel, you can't build lots of things without fossil fuels. [00:04:38] Speaker 3: Your argument is an argument from the 1960s that wants to keep us addicted to an oil economy that is actually threatening Britain's national security. [00:04:49] Speaker 1: No, the lack of availability of oil is threatening our economy. [00:04:54] Speaker 3: No, no matter how much oil we have in Britain, we still pay global prices for it. No, we hear this argument all the time, [00:05:01] Speaker 1: the same about gas as well, except the Americans have far lower energy prices than we have, because they've fracked and they've drilled. [00:05:08] Speaker 3: So America has a separate gas economy than Britain. Britain is part of the European gas markets. If we actually drill for more gas... And anyway, our gas and oil fields peaked when? 1999. It's an old, mature field. We should be investing in... [00:05:25] Speaker 1: Fracking hasn't peaked, we haven't tried that. [00:05:27] Speaker 3: There's 1.7 million households who are still on oil 50 years after the oil crisis who are going to be hammered on electricity because we didn't switch them to electricity and so like I have my house. I do not worry about oil crisis because my electricity is free... But you should... Night, day and night with it bad and I want that for everybody. [00:05:46] Speaker 1: Unless you live a good life and you're growing all your own food... I'm in Camberwell, in a city. OK, the food that gets to Camberwell in a city comes by a lorry, comes by a rail, comes from overseas. That is all by diesel, oil, by petrol. That is required. It is using fertiliser that relies on fossil fuels. That's how we manage to feed a population of 7, 8 billion on the planet and not just a few hundred million. All of these things, if you go to hospital and you need medical treatment, it's using plastics that are reliant on fossil fuels. We need, want and rely on fossil fuels. [00:06:25] Speaker 3: Julia, you are arguing for it to keep us addicted to the fuel that has hammered Britain every 10 years, every time there's a crisis in the Middle East. And I'm arguing for national security, we need an inflation-proof, an inflation-proof energy system that my house has and then Miliband is advocating. [00:06:46] Speaker 1: You've got wind turbines and solar panels that are made in China, a hostile nation that could switch them off at any time. [00:06:54] Speaker 3: I'm talking about inflation-proof energy. [00:06:57] Speaker 1: How? [00:06:57] Speaker 3: Two things. [00:06:58] Speaker 1: How do you do that? Okay, I'll show you how. You've got one minute. [00:07:01] Speaker 3: Buy a foreign gas plant, you have to buy fuel for the next 50 years. Buy a foreign wind turbine, a solar panel, you don't have to buy any fuel for the next 50 years. [00:07:10] Speaker 1: Solar panels last 25 years, Max. That's not true. I haven't had mine for 18 years. No, no, wind turbines do not last 25 years. Solar panels last at least 25 years. Good for solar panels, but wind turbines do not. That's what I've done, and that's why I work for every house in Britain. Mate, it's sunny outside right now. [00:07:25] Speaker 3: Free energy for British households. [00:07:26] Speaker 1: Look, as long as we're already invaded on a sunny summer's afternoon, we'll be fine, won't we? We won't have to rely on for reliable energy. [00:07:32] Speaker 3: In night time in Camberwell, for the last 10 months, my house has used a battery to use solar power to power my house. [00:07:38] Speaker 1: Mate, that's fine for your own electricity. That's absolutely fine. However, that is not how the whole economy runs. [00:07:45] Speaker 3: 40% of the electricity grid is already renewables. Only 28% is fossil fuels. [00:07:50] Speaker 1: No, no, sorry, that's roughly about 5% of our entire energy needs is actually from renewables. [00:07:58] Speaker 3: Would you accept the national grid? 40% of the energy is from renewables? [00:08:02] Speaker 1: Not on most days. [00:08:04] Speaker 3: Not on all days. [00:08:05] Speaker 1: 40%. On the days when it's sunny and windy. Otherwise, we rely on gas and nuclear. Otherwise, like in my house, at nighttime, we use batteries. We have to have backup. And we have to have... You don't need backup for gas and oil and nuclear because they work every day. [00:08:16] Speaker 3: Yeah, but we have to buy them every day. [00:08:18] Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah. [00:08:19] Speaker 3: You want a system that wants us to buy for every day. You know what? [00:08:20] Speaker 1: I'm going to liken your argument, it's not okay. You want to wean us off our addiction to oxygen. I'm afraid fossil fuels are as important to our survival as oxygen. It's as simple as that. It's not going to happen. The fact that you and Ed Miliband, with all due respect, you're as bonkers as each other, would rather put us back in caves, unable to defend our country, unable to feed our population, keep our houses warm and keep cars on the road, rather than actually doing the sensible thing in face facts. Bloody terrifying. [00:08:48] Speaker 2: What you're seeing here is being framed as part of a wider media and political battle over energy policy in the UK. The argument being made is that some media outlets and commentators are influenced, directly or indirectly, by fossil fuel interests, and that this shapes how green energy and climate policy are discussed in public. From that perspective, the debate isn't just about oil, gas, or renewables, but about whether media coverage is genuinely neutral or driven by deeper industry alignment. Critics of this view, however, would argue it's a mischaracterization, and that the focus is simply on energy, affordability, reliability, and national security. The segment also highlights a key contrast. One side pushing the idea that renewables are the long-term solution, while the other insists fossil fuels are still essential in economic stability and everyday life. So, overall, it's not just an energy debate. It's a dispute over trust, influence, and how climate policy is being shaped in the public conversation. [00:09:47] Speaker ?: For more information, visit www.fema.org