Leaders in the EU and the UK have announced markedly different plans to manage the escalating energy crisis, as August power-prices in Europe soar to an all-time high and Putin vows to shutter the Nord Stream 1 pipeline until sanctions are lifted.
The newly-minted UK prime minister Liz Truss declined to follow the EU lead of a windfall tax on energy companies – tipped to make £170bn in windfall profits over the next two years in the UK alone – instead announcing a price cap on household energy bills, extra funding for energy suppliers, the scrapping of green levies and a lift on the fracking ban.
This means that while while energy companies in Europe will shoulder the financial burden of easing the crisis, the UK government will shoulder that burden itself, taking out billions in debt – some of which will help prop up the oil and gas sector.