Whitehall sources revealed that the Prime Minister and Chancellor John Healey are plotting to override the opposition of Mr Miliband and Energy Secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh by pumping Rosebank’s 500 million barrels of oil.
Mr Miliband has previously referred to proposals for the oil field as “climate vandalism”.
The decision is understood to have been reached during tense preparations for Wednesday’s Budget, which have highlighted the fragile state of the nation’s finances, the lack of growth in the economy and the destabilising effect of high energy prices.
Mr Healey is struggling to put together a package of support for low-income families and suffering businesses against a backdrop of high Government borrowing costs and shrinking ‘fiscal headroom’ – the cushion of extra money kept by the Treasury as an insurance against unforeseen hits to the economy.
Drilling Rosebank would be a further blow for those environmentalists and Labour MPs who objected to a decision last week to approve the exploitation of the Jackdaw gas field.
They say Rosebank, which lies 80 miles west of the Shetlands and is the UK’s largest undeveloped oil and gas field, would emit seven times the carbon dioxide of Jackdaw.
More than 90% of its reserves are oil, the majority of which is likely to be exported to the global market....<<<Read More>>>...