In 1965 TV reporters flocked to Aberdeen.

With a microphone in hand, they posed on the dockside with a drilling rig strategically placed in the background and pontificated about the natural gas finds under the North sea.

Not only would it ensure future supplies and make us independent, they said, but it would be free.

What a pipe (no pun intended) dream that has turned out to be.

According to reports Britain is facing an energy crisis.

Over the past few weeks, the price of natural gas on the world market has skyrocketed to such an extent that some industries in the UK which heavily rely on it are having to shut down because the price has risen so much.

With prices up and spare capacity down, we are heading into winter in a precarious state. Obsessed about renewables the government seems to have lost the plot.

Thinking that we could buy gas on the world market as and when we needed it, successive governments have cut back on storage capacity, but we are now having to compete with the rest of the world for that gas.

More than anything it reveals just how vulnerable we now are to fluctuating prices.

To offset the high prices power chiefs are today calling on the government to axe the green levy. I for one am not holding my breath.

D. Walker, Barrowford