THERE is nothing at all contradictory in the Scottish Government’s twin
desires to maximise the benefit of North Sea oil while preparing for a
green energy future.
The timing of yesterday’s leaked draft Government paper, however, arguing
that a “transition to renewable energy reduces our dependence on damaging,
price-volatile fossil fuels” was more than mildly embarrassing.
It came a day after Alex Salmond launched a major report highlighting the
value of North Sea oil and gas to the economy of an independent Scotland.
The First Minister aimed to reassure the industry in the run-up to the
referendum, telling oil companies that an independent Scotland would meet
existing UK pledges to provide £20bn in tax breaks for decommissioning
rigs, and to tempt voters with an image of North Sea riches to come. A day
later, it seemed, the black gold was history and we were all going green.
The circumstances of the leak remain vague, though the document was
authenticated by a spokesman for the First Minister. It was drafted by
officials in Finance Minister John Swinney’s department, from where a far
more damaging private memo emerged a few months ago. Whether the Government
finds the mole we’ll probably never know.
It would be far more productive, in any case, to consider what the paper
actually says.
Plans include a new Scottish energy regulator, a replacement for Ofgem
which Ministers claim could help tackle fuel poverty in an independent
Scotland. But at the heart of the report is not something that would change
but something the SNP hopes would stay the same – a proposal for an
independent Scotland to remain part of a single energy market with the rest
of the UK.
That would happen, it insists, because it would be in the UK’s interests as
much as Scotland’s. Wind farms could continue to expand because of the
“higher levels of public acceptance of renewable energy developments in
Scotland”. They would supply England’s homes and help to meet England’s
emissions targets while England’s taxpayers, the report argues, would be
happy to continue subsidising Scottish wind farms because of their “more
polarised” views on turbine-filled landscapes.
Would such a scenario emerge if Scots vote Yes next year? Or might the rest
of the UK be tempted to subsidise new wind farms of its own? It might if it
agreed with Alex Salmond that renewable energy holds the key to
reindustrialisation, creating tens of thousands of jobs over the coming
decades.
Such questions could only be answered by the negotiations that would follow
a Yes vote next year. One thing is certain though: the Government’s
confident assertion that Scots are keener on wind farms than the English (a
claim based on a poll by industry body Scottish Renewables, it should be
noted) will set alarm bells ringing across rural Scotland.
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