When it’s not enough to just keep it in the ground

http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/may/27/when-its-not-enough-to-just-keep-it-in-the-ground

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You continue to wrongly say that “the UK oil and gas industry receives huge government subsidy” (Growth at all costs: climate change, fossil fuel subsidies and the Treasury, 25 May) in support of your Keep it in the ground campaign. The sector is not – and has never been – in receipt of government subsidy. Offshore oil and gas producers are subject to more onerous taxes than other industries, ranging between 50% and 75% of profits, significantly higher than other UK business sectors’ 20%. Recent changes in the rules merely serve to lessen that tax burden in order to encourage investment in new production and support high-skilled jobs, and billions of pounds of tax and export revenues in future. This adjustment is a particularly wise move on two counts. First, we in the UK will continue to rely on oil and gas to meet 70% of our energy needs well into the 2030s, according to the government. Second, in the event that we do not extract our own resources, we will have to import oil and gas, which results in higher global emissions and likely higher costs. These are two key facts that have not yet been addressed in the course of your campaign.Deirdre MichieChief executive, Oil & Gas UK

• David Rose’s comprehensive piece (Captured by carbon, The long read, 27 May) summarises the issue as the balance between the environment and growth. Sooner rather than later we must replace, as Kate Pickett says, “the impossible logic of a continued desire for economic growth” with a “vision of a steady-state economy”, such as that roadmapped by Rob Dietz and Dan O’Neill in their book Enough is Enough, which offers a “practical focus on how we achieve it”, together with a better quality of life and a sustainable future for all of us.David MurrayWallington, Surrey