UK appoints new energy minister
UK prime minister Boris Johnson appointed one-time derivatives trader Greg Hands as minister of state at the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy September 16.
The move is part of a major reshuffle that has seen a number of posts change hands, including the foreign ministry and education ministry, but not the secretary of state for BEIS which remains Kwasi Kwarteng.
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Hands succeeds Ann-Marie Trevelyan who had held the job since January. She has now become secretary of state for International Trade. Hands himself had been a minister in that department since February 2020.
Upstream industry lobby group Oil & Gas UK welcomed the change while acknowledging the work done by Trevelyan. CEO Deirdre Michie said: “We would like to thank Ms Trevelyan very much indeed for working with us so closely and effectively, especially in relation to the North Sea Transition Deal. This was a transformational agreement, the first of its kind by any G7 country, showing how oil and gas-producing countries can move fairly towards a lower carbon future.“
Hands, who has represented the well-heeled borough of Chelsea and Fulham in parliament since 2010, has been a minister since 2011. He enters the energy department at a time of unprecedented prices: a combination of anti-Russia sentiment, a shortage of uncontracted gas and woefully under-filled storage facilities all bode ill for energy consumers' bills.