The Option Britain Burned |
On May 13, 2026, the British government used the King’s Speech to announce the Energy Independence Bill — legislation that will permanently ban new oil and gas exploration licenses in the North Sea and outlaw fracking across the United Kingdom. It is the first time a significant G7 oil producer has enacted such a prohibition. Oil and gas still supply three-quarters of Britain’s energy, and the majority of those hydrocarbons are now imported. Ed Miliband, the Energy Secretary, calls it a pathway to clean-energy superpower status by 2030. The industry calls it an act of industrial suicide.
One week earlier, Norway — drilling in the same waters — approved the reopening of three gas fields shuttered since 1998, committed two billion dollars of fresh investment, and offered seventy new exploration blocks. Oslo’s energy minister was blunt: with war in Ukraine and war in the Middle East, Europe’s gas supply has never been more vulnerable.
The contrast could hardly be starker. But the sharpest comparison is not with Oslo. It is with Jerusalem.
Israel’s energy story is the mirror image of Britain’s. A country with no indigenous oil tradition, excluded from every regional pipeline, surrounded by hostile states,........