As the class of 2015 made their way to Westminster for the first day of the new parliament, newly promoted energy secretary Amber Rudd was already at her new desk at Decc.
In the Conservative manifesto, and what should be the blueprint for this 12-seat majority Tory government, there were promises to “halt the spread of onshore wind” and to develop the shale gas sector in the UK.
Rudd has wasted little time and already committed to bring in legislation to stop any new subsidies for onshore wind by May 2016.
This is perhaps less scary for the renewables industry when you realise that her predecessor, the deposed Ed Davey, wrote in September that there was already enough onshore wind currently going through the planning system for the UK to hit its 2020 renewables target.
Fracking is another area where Rudd is already looking to make headway. While the headstrong “going all out for shale gas” comment made by prime minister David Cameron in January 2014 was watered down in the manifesto – “we will continue to support the safe development of shale gas” – moves are happening behind the scene to support the nascent industry in the UK.
Decc is already recruiting three senior policy advisers to the ministerial team to help fracking in the UK to bloom, and to boost the UK’s gas supplies.
While the SNP and Labour bickered over who is going to sit where in the Commons, Rudd has been getting down to business.