'Only I can make that decision': Fahnbulleh insists Rosebank call is hers
The Energy Secretary says the decision on the oil field west of Shetland will be made by her, not the Prime Minister or the Chancellor, to avoid it being overturned in court.
Energy Secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh. · Photograph: House of Commons / Roger Harris (CC BY 3.0)
Energy Secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh has insisted she alone will decide whether to approve the Rosebank oil field, not Prime Minister Andy Burnham or Chancellor John Healey.
Speaking to political journalists in Westminster a day after the Jackdaw gas field was approved, she said Rosebank was a regulatory decision with a tight legal framework, and that interference by colleagues would only lead to it being overturned in the courts.
She said only a tiny number of officials had access to the decision documents, and that she would weigh the climate impact against economic factors such as jobs and growth.
Rosebank, about 80 miles north-west of Shetland, is Britain's largest untapped oil field. Unlike Jackdaw's gas, most of its oil would be exported by tanker, which Ms Fahnbulleh has called a different proposition.
She has previously been seen as personally opposed to the project, while supporters have lobbied the Treasury over its economic benefits. Environmental groups say Rosebank would be far more damaging to the climate than Jackdaw.
The Court of Session ruled last year that the original approvals for both fields were unlawful because the climate impact of burning their oil and gas had not been assessed.