MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Trump tells UK to get rid of unsightly windmills and open North Sea to modern drilling

“The U.K. is making a very big mistake. Open up the North Sea. Get rid of Windmills!” President-elect Trump posted in early January on Truth Social

President Donald Trump on Truth Social has strongly criticized UK’s energy policy of pursuing renewables and further taxing North Sea oil and gas operators. In a piece published in OilPrice he suggests getting rid of “costly and unsightly windmills”.

“I strongly recommend to them, however, that in order to get their Energy Costs down, they stop with the costly and unsightly windmills, and incentivize modernized drilling in the North Sea, where large amounts of oil lay waiting to be taken.”

“A century of drilling left, with Aberdeen as the hub. The old fashioned tax system disincentivizes drilling, rather than the opposite. U.K.’s Energy Costs would go WAY DOWN, and fast!” President Trump wrote on the social media platform.

This isn’t the first time President Trump has criticized the energy policy of the United Kingdom. Early this year, ahead of his inauguration, Trump disapproved UK’s energy policy to hike the windfall tax on North Sea oil and gas operators and become a clean energy superpower by boosting offshore wind development.

Trump called for opening up the UK North Sea to oil and gas and getting rid of windmills in response to an announcement by Texas-based Apache that it would cease oil and gas production in the region due to the uneconomical windfall tax.

“The U.K. is making a very big mistake. Open up the North Sea. Get rid of Windmills!” President-elect Trump posted in early January on Truth Social. The post contained an attached article about Apache’s recent announcement that it would exit the UK North Sea.

In recent weeks, the UK’s clean energy targets came under scrutiny after SSE, a major energy company and renewable projects developer in the UK, said it is reducing spending on renewables in its five-year plan to 2027 by US$2 billion (£1.5 billion) “in a changing macro environment.”

The warning from SSE came weeks after Orsted, the world’s biggest offshore wind project developer, announced it had decided to discontinue the development of the Hornsea 4 offshore wind project in the UK in its current form, due to “adverse macroeconomic developments, continued supply chain challenges, and increased execution, market and operational risks.”