Liz Truss was announced today as the new leader of the Conservative Party after coming to power with the support of a libertarian group that opposes climate action.

Truss, a vocal advocate of the free market economy, called farmland solar farms “depressing” during his campaign, saying on Sunday claimed “Gas is a very important transition fuel.”

Truss claims to support renewable energy and has pledged to stick to the UK’s 2050 net-zero target.

However, she has embraced calls from the Net Zero Scrutiny Group (NZSG) and others to remove so-called “environmental taxes” from energy bills (she did not say whether they would instead be covered by general levies). hm), wants to lift the ban in the UK. She says it will frack shale gas with “local backing” and gain approval for as many as 130 new drilling licenses to increase oil and gas drilling in the North Sea.

Truss, who served as environment secretary from 2014 to 2016, has cut subsidies to solar farms, calling them “landscape blight” and claiming without evidence that they are harming food production. did.

Karla Denyer, co-leader of the Green Party explained The appointment of Truss is ‘a catastrophe for Britain and the climate’ on Twitter.

“Her plan to encourage more oil and gas in the North Sea this winter will not help households. But it will definitely contribute to the climate crisis,” she said.

Ideological roots

Truss’ position on climate policy is deeply rooted in the libertarian movement. Her selection was welcomed by Mark Littlewood, director of the Institute for Economic Affairs (IEA), an influential anti-regulatory think tank.

In 2011, shortly after being elected to parliament, Truss, who had previously worked as a commercial manager for Shell, founded a free enterprise group called the IEA’s “Parliamentary Division”.

In 2012 Truss co-authored a book. Britannia unleasheddismissed “government-subsidized green technology” and argued for a low-tax, deregulated economy.

As Secretary of Commerce in 2019, Truss hired the IEA’s Communications Officer as a media advisor. She also hired advisors from the Adam Smith Institute and the Center for Policy Studies. Both have previously criticized Green Action. These include aides who worked at the Koch-funded US-based Cato Institute.

Truss has ties to other American fossil fuel-related groups. During a trip to the United States in 2018 while serving as Treasury Secretary, Truss met with a Koch-funded libertarian think tank and Robbie and his group, who have a history of denying climate science. .

campaign pain

Truss has also relied on figures related to anti-environmentalism. Conservative leadership Early in his campaign, Truss defended plans to cut taxes, citing Patrick Minford, a fellow at the Center for Brexit Policy (CBP) think tank. , the UK’s leading climate science denial group..

They include GWPF Energy Editor John Constable, who called for a complete phase-out of wind and solar energy in March. Former GWPF Director Ruth Lee, aide to NZSG Chairman Craig McKinley. With his GWPF Advisor Matt Ridley Telegraph columnist.

Minford also headed the now-defunct pressure group The Economists for Free Trade (EFT), convened by GWPF financier US shale gas billionaire Edgar Miller. .

When asked about this, a Liz Truss spokesperson told DeSmog:

A Cabinet of Deniers Waiting?

The MP, who has a history of questioning climate science and opposing environmental policies, is poised for a cabinet position in the Truss administration.

According to reports, Truss will nominate Business and Energy Secretary Jacob Smogg, a right-wing lawmaker with a long track record of deniing climate science and opposing environmental policy.

In 2014 Rees-Mogg said: In the same interview, he falsely claimed that his IPCC, the UN’s body of climate experts, said that emission reductions “won’t be effective for hundreds of years, or perhaps he’s 1000 years.” .

Rees-Mogg was also the first minister to back the NZSG campaign to overturn the UK’s fracking ban. In April, he warned of the “huge regulatory costs” of the UK’s net-zero target.

Suera Braverman, who ran for leader vowing to “pause” the UK’s net-zero target, Inclined Became Secretary of the Interior for Truss.

“No orders” to rewind net zero

“Liz Truss’ top priority must be to stop broken gas-dependent energy markets from forcing millions of Britons into winters of cold and hunger,” said Greenpeace UK. ‘s interim executive director, Pat Venditti, said in response to Truss’ election.

“Our dependence on fossil fuels is what is driving the twin hurricanes of the climate and energy bill crises.” He said the house should be insulated.

“This Conservative government was elected on the basis of a manifesto that promises to reach net zero, ‘lead a new green industrial revolution’ and deploy ‘the most ambitious environmental program of any country on earth’. ‘ added Venditi. “There is no obligation or public support to roll back these commitments.”