It is unlikely rUK would want to subsidise our renewable energy
THE Commission on Energy Regulation’s report on energy in an independent
Scotland is the latest rhetorical attempt by the SNP to create legitimacy
for self-serving fantasy (“Maintaining a UK-wide energy market would be
best outcome, report concludes”, The Herald, July 10).
No-one knows what will happen to the energy market in an independent
Scotland, just as no-one knows what will happen to Scotland’s currency or
EU membership.
The problem with energy, as with the currency and EU membership, is that
the nationalists insist that all the advantages of the arrangements
Scotland enjoys as part of the Union will continue. At the same time,
however, all the disadvantages the nationalists see in these arrangements
will disappear, thanks to the enlightened rule of an independent Scottish
Government.
I suppose it is theoretically possible that pigs might fly, but few
investors will be betting hard cash on the rosy scenario presented by the
Commission on Energy Regulation.
Scottish renewable development has only been possible because of billions
of pounds of subsidy and infrastructure spending by the UK Government.
Generating renewable energy in Scotland continues to require high levels of
consumer subsidy and cannot compete with cheaper electricity from Europe.
It is hard to imagine energy suppliers paying over the odds for Scottish
renewable energy, let alone an rUK government requiring its hard-pressed
voters to subsidise electricity generation in a country which has turned
its back on the Union.
Linda Holt,
Dreel House, Pittenweem, Anstruther.
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