GB News’ fossil fuel links

Following my recent appearance on GB News, which has gone fabulously viral (getting picked up by news sources like The Poke and gaining over a million views and counting!), I wanted to share a bit more with you — not just about what happened on air, but about why I said what I did, and what it reveals about the stories we’re being told.

In case you missed it: during the interview, I challenged the host, Martin Daubney, over the network’s refusal to disclose its fossil fuel links. I said live on air what no one else dares to say on that channel — that the outlet is backed by powerful interests with a financial stake in the fossil fuel status quo.

It’s not just that their reporting is biased: it’s that there’s a structural reason why. GB News is owned by Paul Marshall, a hedge fund billionaire with £1.8 billion in fossil fuel investments — in companies like Chevron, Shell, and Equinor. This is the same Paul Marshall who now owns The Spectator, and who’s funded think tanks that helped outlaw climate protest in the UK. He is, quite plainly, someone with a vested interest in keeping fossil fuels dominant and renewables sidelined.

So when Daubney tried to tell viewers that green energy is to blame for high bills, I pushed back. Because he was telling the opposite of the truth.

So let’s be clear about why UK energy bills really are so high:

• We still rely heavily on gas to power our grid and heat our homes. That makes us vulnerable to global gas prices, which have soared since the war in Ukraine. We import most of our gas, and we pay what the market demands. Contrast that with countries that have made greater investments in renewables: they’re far less exposed.
• And here’s what hardly ever gets discussed: the UK still uses a system called peak pricing (also known as “marginal cost pricing”). This means that the price of all electricity is set by the most expensive fuel — usually gas. 

It’s a rigged system. A cleverly disguised rip-off that systematically favours fossil fuels and props them up, even when cheaper, cleaner alternatives are available.

None of this will be explored in earnest by outlets like GB News because doing so would threaten the interests of their owner.

The real answer to why our bills are so high might just lie in the media system itself — a system that needs urgent exposure, and transformation. I explore these points and more in a recent Substack entitled So, Why Are Britain’s Energy Bills So High?

I hope the interview helped open that conversation. If it did, please share it far and wide. And I’d love to hear from you:

• What energy or climate issues are troubling you most right now?
• What would you like to see me or the Climate Majority Project do next?