Bill Esterson MP on energy, EVs and Elon Musk

Bill is running to be Chair of the Energy Security and Net Zero Committee

Aug 23, 2024

Hello, I’m Tom Riley, and welcome back to The Fast Charge, a British EV newsletter.

Top feature in today’s edition… I speak to Labour’s Bill Esterson MP about his ambition to be elected Chair of the Energy Security and Net Zero Committee (ESNZ).

During our interview… Bill tells me it is “absolute nonsense” that Labour will back away from its EV by 2030 pledge… talks about how he would run the ESNZ committee and scrutinise Labour’s missions… and says the government “has to take action” on Musk for his involvement in promoting riots.

Elsewhere… More stories about the ZEV mandate, the EU is bringing in tariffs on China-made cars, and Ford holds fire on new EVs.

As ever, open door policy, if you have any thoughts, please do get in touch via my contact details below or simply reply to this email.

Meet Bill Esterson: The MP hoping to Chair Parliament’s Energy Committee

Background: First elected in 2010 for the Labour constituency of Sefton Central, near Liverpool, Bill Esterson, like many Labour MPs, has spent most of their parliamentary career in opposition. And, for Bill, a clearly passionate clean energy advocate, probably quite a frustrating time watching the Tories go from embracing the environment to Sunak’s net zero reversals last year.

However… At the election in July, most Brits decided to throw in the towel with the rudderless rule, and in has come a Labour Party that seems economically sensitive but, crucially, bold about delivering clean energy by 2030 – and championing a wider industrial strategy built around being pro net zero.

As a quick bio… during his parliamentary career, Bill has held several shadow ministerial roles, and was most recently Labour’s Shadow Roads Minister, looking after EV policy. However, while Starmer chose not to take him forward to a government position after the election, Bill is not sitting on his hands and is looking to put his experience to use by campaigning to become Chair of the ESNZ Committee.

And his industry network is very supportive… on LinkedIn, he’s had backing from lots of those in the energy sector. Matt Adams from the Association for Renewable Energy and Clean Technology told me, “We are confident that Bill would ensure industry experts are heard and that he would stand up for and ensure proper scrutiny of net zero policies going forward.”

I’m speaking to Bill during Summer recess. In the two weeks beforehand, he announced his ambition to be elected ESNZ’s new Committee Chair when Parliament returns. I begin our chat by asking, why this role?

“It was just a very natural role to go for. Given its importance and just how exciting I find it. I think this is a huge opportunity for the UK. It will create hundreds of thousands of jobs and boost the living standards of people across the country, especially in those communities that have been left behind.” Bill adds: “I want to bring my background, my experience, my relationships to really add value, because what the select committee does at its best is to present properly evidenced recommendations to government on what's needed to deliver success.”

Bill is clearly enthusiastic about Labour’s mission, so how would he effectively scrutinise the government, run by his party, delivering what he supports?

“I hope to use my role to reinvigorate the cross-party consensus on net zero that I think it's fair to say we lost sight of in the last year when Rishi Sunak rode back on various elements.” Bill continues: “It’s very, very important we get back to the consensus. Yes, because of the environmental necessity, the existential threat that we face from catastrophic global warming. But, critically, the economic benefits, the lower bills, the jobs, the benefits to health of cleaner air. All of these are prizes that are hugely, hugely beneficial to our constituents, whichever party we represent.”

And how would Bill manage MPs on a committee where, presumably, some will be hungry to trip up Labour?

“We leave the politics at the door. We work together. We take an evidence-informed approach. We make recommendations that we all sign up to. And so that will be very much the approach I take. But, of course, in the context of a Labour Government that I support.”

Many commentators said that the election was a referendum on the environment – which people voted in favour of. But lots didn’t. So, in his engagement, has Bill found the ‘consensus’ he speaks of exists in other parties?

“Most people are signed up to the necessity and the desirability of decarbonising,” Bill says. “There was this attempt by Rishi Sunak to try and stoke culture wars and division with his changes of view on net zero. It was very regrettable. I don't think a lot of his colleagues really agreed with him on that. We can recreate the consensus as a result.”

Some of the dates included in Labour’s energy mission are ambitious – such as clean energy by 2030. Are there lessons from history we can learn from? Bill believes so.

“We have to avoid the mistakes of deindustrialisation, which communities across the UK are still living with 30, 40, 50, 60 years later when it comes to the transition to clean energy. But actually, we do need people working in the oil and gas industry for decades to come. We're still going to have lots of vehicles, even when we end the sale of new petrol and diesel cars and vans.”

Bill expands saying that the transition won’t happen “straight away”. So industries like gas, which employs tens of thousands, will continue to be important.

“We're going to continue extracting oil and gas from the North Sea for a while to come. We've got the existing licences. There's no intention of the government to move away from it. There's plenty of common ground there. What really matters is that workforce is going to have a crucial role to play as we increase the production of energy from alternative sources. We have to retrain people, we have to make sure the jobs are available in the areas of the country where people are working now.”

Unlike gas, one thing that has become abundant over the past year is how important public communication is when it comes to the energy transition. Is this an area Bill would want to look at?

“This is where select committee inquiries have got the opportunity to do things that perhaps can really help the government. I think the communication side of it is, how well is the government's agenda understood? How well do people understand what the reality of energy production and the market is? I think we've got to look after consumers. We've got to do that.” Bill adds: “It is one of the potential works for a select committee to recommend to government how best to take people with you on a journey like this that is so fundamental. It's quite a big change in the way we live.”

In Labour’s manifesto, one policy communicated a lot was that it would reinstate the ban on new petrol and diesel cars to 2030. In his former role as Shadow Roads Minister, Bill was often the person delivering this message. Since then, numerous sources have suggested Labour is wobbling around it, does he still believe it will happen?

“The manifesto commitment is very much what this government's going to do. I think we've got to look at how to implement it effectively. But the reason it matters is because it's about rebuilding consumer confidence.” Bill adds: “There's multiple elements here to improving the take-up. But you have to have a combination of encouraging people and a degree of compliance. I think the 2030 date is a bit of both. But what matters is certainty.”

Bill adds: “This briefing saying Labour's about to quietly drop the plan is absolute nonsense.”

The briefing Bill refers to came attached with some rather tough comments about his time as a Shadow Minister, such as calling him “rogue”. Since publishing, I must say I’ve received several counters to these claims. But how does Bill feel in response?

“It was in the manifesto and I thought it was very odd that people said I had gone rogue. If faithfully repeating your party’s policy is going rogue, I don't quite know where to go with that really.”

Bill explains Labour’s thinking on reinstating to 2030…

“The calculation that was done for us as a party demonstrated that delaying five years cost drivers tens of billions of pounds in higher fuel costs. That was why we made that decision. I certainly wasn't speaking out of turn. I was representing party policy. I am entirely confident that we made the right call and continue to.”

As Chair of ESNZ, Bill will cover a wide area, and in his letter to colleagues, he identified 10 priority areas. But what three would come first?

“One is the fundamental transition to low carbon energy in industry, in consumer, heating, lightening, cooking, and in transport. The second is the role of GB Energy and how it delivers the scale of investment and the pace of investment we need to do this at the speed that we need to. And then the third one is the grid connections and the grid capacity, because unless we get the grid ready, we can't do it.”

And would he envisage picking up from where the last committee left off?

“Undoubtedly, we will look at what was the last government's record and where does that leave us. Because you need to do a stock take. What did they do over the 14 years? What are the lessons from the government effectively leaving it to the market?”

Leaving everything to the market has led to a lot of foreign ownership of many critical UK assets, is this something Bill would look at?

“The committee is called the Energy Security Net Zero Committee. The ‘Energy Security’ element of it is as important as the ‘Net Zero’ bit. What you have to do is create strong, resilient domestic supply chains, and where you haven't got everything in this country, where you haven't got all the minerals, you've got to create international supply chains that are secure. It's not going to get any less risky anytime soon, is it? I mean, that's pretty apparent with what's going on not just in Ukraine, but in the Middle East. But the potential concerns that a Trump presidency would produce.”

While talking of outside influence, Bill mentions the recent riots that were stirred up largely on social media. I ask about Elon Musk, whose EVs are incredibly popular in the UK, and the role he played in the rioting:

“That's an interesting challenge, isn't it? What do we do about people who are doing this from outside the UK? Absolutely. I'll be fascinated to see exactly where we end up there because he's using his huge wealth and influence to attack the government in this country. Potentially, who knows what his true intent there is, but we do have to take action on it, whatever that ends up looking like.”

Before we finish, I ask Bill how he believes select committees can best hold Labour’s Five Missions accountable. It’s an area Bill would investigate with the other chairs.

“Rather than the Energy Committee holding an inquiry over here, and then realising the Transport Committee is doing something very similar over here, and the Business and Trade one doing something over here, and they arrive in the audit one. Hang on a minute, why don't we work together and look at the missions? I'll be guided by the missions as well. The energy mission isn't just a mission for the Energy Security and Net Zero Committee. It's a mission for probably all of them. I think there's a range of discussions to be had with the other Chairs around how to work more closely together.”

We’ll have to wait and see if Bill gets elected. The select committee elections are on 11 September. Thanks to Bill Esterson MP for his time and I wish him luck. Thanks also to his team for organising.

You can follow Bill on LinkedIn here.

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