AT LONG LAST – Comment on closing ROCs early

Responding to today’s DECC announcement on onshore wind subsidies, Graham Lang, chair of Scotland Against Spin, a national alliance of groups and individuals which campaigns for reform of Scottish wind policy, said:

“We are delighted the Conservative Government is sticking to its promise to end the ludicrously generous subsidies for onshore wind farms.

Speculative developers from across the world have flocked to Scotland because of the SNP’s open door policy to the wind industry. Scottish communities besieged by subsidy-chasers can at last look forward to some respite.

Every wind farm proposal creates more opposition; every turbine which goes up convinces more people ‘enough is enough’. Yet to its eternal shame the Scottish Government has ignored the clamour for reform from its own people. There is a terrible irony that the Conservatives at Westminster, not the nationalists at Holyrood, have finally stood up to the wind speculators and put the interests of communities and consumers first.

Ending the renewable obligation scheme will not check the runaway development of smaller wind farms eligible for feed-in-tariffs. These can be even more damaging for local residents, and cumulatively for local landscapes, than larger wind farms. We urge Amber Rudd to finish the job she’s started today and close feed-in-tariffs at the same time as ROCs.”