Political Agenda this week, by Jillian Ambrose

“We need energy policy to be progressive, not boring”

“Fundamentally, I want energy policy to be boring.” Energy secretary Amber Rudd has made great strides towards this goal in her long-awaited reset speech, offering up a subtle refocus that sticks with what we know and expect. In short: it’s conservative.

The Tories have never found energy policy too inspiring, so it’s perhaps little surprise that in a majority government the party is set on trying to convince us all that we should find this ­trilemma talk dull.

Utility Week memorably reported that Tory MP Phillip Lee took to a pre-election industry debate to say that the Conservatives “have no clear energy policy”. When it did emerge, the Tory manifesto rehashed its own version of acceptable Liberal Democrat lines, accented with a bit of foot-stomping over renewables.

Few would argue that energy policy should be a cause for concern. But the point Rudd is missing is that the alternative to instability need not be boring. What about exciting, ­inspiring, world-leading? The UK’s energy policy could be all of these things if government was prepared to offer a genuine reset for an industry on the brink of a seismic technological shift.

By framing energy as something “people going about their daily lives don’t need to worry about”, Rudd misses the point that consumers are increasingly engaged with energy – from their bills, to their suppliers and where the energy has come from.

Boring is not what we need. Fundamentally, we need energy policy to be progressive.