Energy policy role at No 10 for former BP man.

[Magda Hassan]

Energy policy role at No 10 for former BP man Ben Moxham on shortlist of one for new adviser post, as David Cameron looks to bulk up policy unit

• Allegra Stratton, political correspondent
  
• guardian.co.uk, Thursday 10 March 2011 18.34 GMT David Cameron has decided to reinforce the policy specialists at the heart of government in the wake of the attempted forest sell-off. Photograph: Andy Rain/EPA Downing Street is set to appoint former BP employee Ben Moxham to head up its energy and environment policy, as one of nine new policy advisers due to beef up No 10.
  Moxham is currently employed at the Riverstone private equity group run by former BP boss Lord John Browne, which specialises in oil and renewable energy investment.
  The 31-year-old has been put forward on a shortlist of one to David Cameron and Nick Clegg for approval, having been vetted by an impartial civil service appointment process. The two party leaders will meet six civil service candidates and three private sector recruits, of which Moxham is one, in the final round of the process to bring nine extra policy experts into government. All will be appointed as civil servants in order not to breach Cameron's stipulation on the number of political appointees.
  The new advisers are intended to bulk up the No 10 policy unit. Cameron had said he wanted his tenure as prime minister to be hands-off but recent fiascos over the attempted sell-off of forests and the concern about the NHS convinced him to reinforce his policy specialists at the heart of government. The new recruits will "man-mark" their respective ministries and draw up policies for the second half of the current parliament, when the coalition agreement will have run out of specific policy road.
  Downing Street is happy with Moxham's shortlisting by the civil service, pointing to his experience heading up the alternative energy department at BP under Browne. The government regards its energy policy increasingly to be the implementation of the kind of renewables agenda Moxham took charge of when at BP.
  Moxham was a founding member of the team of BP Alternative Energy as its director of policy, looking after BP's interests in renewables, gas power, and carbon capture and storage.
  While Moxham will have been key in helping BP move "beyond petroleum", as its strapline became, there were some concerns among environmental campaigners that BP's alternative energy department was ill-fated. The unit run by Moxham was shut down in June 2009.
  http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/20...y-no-10-bp