Ex-Energy Minister attacks ‘gas-guzzling’ Americans

The former energy minister Brian Wilson will attack the United States next week for putting “two fingers” up to the rest of the world through its “profligate and irresponsible” consumption of fuel.

Mr Wilson, who left government in 2003 and is retiring from politics at the general election, will tell a conference in Edinburgh that the biggest energy challenge the world faces today is to persuade America to start reducing its own oil consumption as it becomes dependent on imports for the first time.