Comment by skippyboxedhero

Yes, there are massive onshore reserves. The Tory government that has been accused on here of pimping the environment immediately banned all exploration.

There is are also two relatively big offshore fields that were taken to a very late stage of development and then stopped because of opposition by local government.

I would research exactly how big the gap is with other countries (and, remember, retail price is subsidised). The Cameron government made the active decision to order companies to shut down power plants with no plans for replacement. To be clear, nothing about energy...this is jut electricity provision. There was no economic incentive, that is why tens of billions were given to energy companies to produce non-economic, expensive power with guaranteed payments.

There was some research done last year iirc: if the UK paid zero for gas, the price of electricity would not stop rising because of the government intervention.

It is reasonable that you assume something rational must be going on here. But that model does not apply in the UK. Politics took over from economics a long time ago.