Liz Truss puts hard-right ideology above lives – and is backing oil and gas to prove it | Owen Jones

Amid mounting energy and climate crises, the would-be prime minister is burying her head in an eternal culture war

How best to describe wilfully vandalising the planet and threatening human life to satisfy ideological bloodlust? Liz Truss - already a plausible contender for the worst prime minister ever" gong before she even assumes office - apparently intends to issue up to 130 drilling licences for oil and gas firms. If the purpose of this is to confront the looming social catastrophe of energy bills, to describe it as an exercise in futility would be generous: it takes the best part of three decades to pump fossil fuels out of the ground and put them onstream.

As Russia switches off Europe's flow of gas via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline - it implausibly cites maintenance work as the reason - the need for drastic, swift action could not be more obvious, yet our soon-to-be prime minister has nothing meaningful to offer.

Owen Jones is a Guardian columnist

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