THE TELEGRAPH: Energy secretary Chris Huhne has ordered his officials to look at the impact of a 1970s-style oil price spike on the British economy.Mr Huhne said the UK was having to prepare itself for “lots of shocks”, forcing the price of a barrel of oil to double, mirroring the volatility last seen in the 1970s.
The news came as Mr Huhne said he would only give the green light to more nuclear power stations if Chancellor George Osborne agreed to taking millions of the lowest paid out of income tax. “A deal is a deal,” he said.
Mr Huhne said he was concerned about the future fluctuations in the price of a barrel of oil, which would send the price of petrol soaring.
A 1970s-style doubling in the price of oil would drain £45billion from the UK economy in two years, hitting investment and jobs.
He told a meeting on the fringe of the party’s conference in Liverpool: “We will have a world where there may be lots of shocks, we may well have oil price rises which are similar to the ones that we had in the 1970s, a doubling.
“I have asked for some work to be done in the department about what the impact of that might be in terms of British business, businesses that have nothing to do with energy, with green growth, entirely outside.
“The corner shop is affected if we have an oil price shock because the economy is hit very seriously.” >>> Christopher Hope, Whitehall Editor | Tuesday, September 21, 2010
