00:00Are people in the US really paying six times less for their electricity bills than people
00:06in the UK because of President Donald Trump?
00:09Drill, baby, drill.
00:12Well that's the backdrop to a claim now being pushed by the Vice President J.D. Vance.
00:17Why have the Europeans made themselves completely dependent on unreliable sources of energy?
00:24UK families are paying four times, five times, six times what United States citizens are paying for electricity.
00:31He says that Europe, including the UK, is completely dependent on unreliable energy,
00:37meaning foreign sources that can be disrupted by wars.
00:41Now, that's misleading. Around half of the UK's energy is produced at home,
00:46and a growing share comes from renewables which aren't exposed to global conflicts
00:51in the same way that oil and gas are.
00:54The US is more oil rich than us.
00:57It has also never had that slightly squeamish attitude that we have towards drilling for oil.
01:03We kind of feel a bit bad about it.
01:05America doesn't, and certainly under Trump, it's pursued this policy of making sure
01:11that it can get as much oil as it wants.
01:13Then there's the headline claim. UK electricity bills are six times higher than in the US.
01:20Now, these figures do not stack up.
01:22In the US, the average electricity bill, not including other utilities like gas,
01:29is $150 a month, which equates to around £110.
01:35Now, in the UK, the average bill for electricity is around £79 a month.
01:42But electricity is more expensive in the UK than it is in the US.
01:47In the UK, a kilowatt hour costs around 25 pence, and in the US, it's around 17 cents.
01:56So no, UK households are not paying six times more.
02:01But here's the bigger question.
02:02Energy prices have gone up in the UK, so what's actually driving that?
02:08What has happened with Iran is that because it's blockaded the Strait of Hormuz,
02:13there's been this massive squeeze on supply.
02:17So this is this vital link for oil and gas too.
02:22Something like a fifth of all of the world's oil and gas passes through this strait.
02:27At the moment, it can't get through.
02:30So the impact of that is that there's demand for this stuff is the same as it ever was,
02:36and the supply of it is dramatically down.
02:39And that's why you've seen prices rocket.
02:41So the bottom line, the claim made by JD Vance is catchy, but it does not reflect reality.
02:47So it's about both people, people, how to do it, when they are in the US, when they are in
02:47the US,
02:47So that's why society is a very popular community.
02:48So, you know, it's a very popular community.
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