The UK’s policy of using massive subsidies to support politically-favored green technologies has resulted in some of the highest energy prices in the developed world, and the government should instead foster a competitive, technology-neutral market to drive down costs and encourage innovation, says Matthew Bowles

“We are in the absurd situation where our country is leaving vital resources untapped… We are going to get all our oil and gas out of the North Sea” declared Kemi Badenoch over the weekend. Her pledge was meant as a rallying cry, and indeed it is refreshing to hear, but it illustrates the deeper flaw in Britain’s energy strategy.

Our energy policy looks less like a free market and more like a fixed horse race in which ministers have already picked the winner and forced the taxpaying jockey to bring it across the finish line. Instead of letting competition drive down costs and spark breakthroughs, successive governments have locked the country into a narrow stable of favoured technologies, propped up with subsidies, tax breaks and privileges.

In some cases, state intervention in critical markets makes sense. The UK was right to bar Huawei from 5G networks on national security grounds. With concern over Chinese ownership of British energy infrastructure, one can also imagine when........

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