THE efforts made by the SNP Energy Minister, Fergus Ewing, to deflect
responsibility for the closure of Longannet Power Station and for the
withdrawal of the plan to build a gas-fired power station at Cockenzie to
the door of the Prime Minister, fail to address the fundamental and now
problematic question, which will now be accentuated in Scotland and that is
– how is Scotland for the 2020s onwards to have an adequate, economic, and
secure electricity.
The closure dates for Cockenzie (now closed), Longannet (soon to close),
Hunterston B, and Torness have been flagged up in the public domain for
many years. There should, therefore, be no surprise about any of that. What
has been the SNP Government’s response to those well-trailed dates for
closure? It has been to approve more and more wind turbines at the UK
taxpayers’ expense, on many occasions against the wishes of the local
population. These plans have been thrown into some disarray by the UK
Government announcing recently that such subsidies are to come to an end.
It is a sobering thought, but the future for electricity supply in Scotland
now looks more and more uncertain. It will not do, when electricity
customers , domestic, commercial and industrial, complain about power being
rationed, unreliable, or increasingly expensive because of imports from
England, for those in power at Holyrood to come out with the politically
dressed- up version of the phrase “Well, it wisnae me.”
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Ian W Thomson,
38 Kirkintilloch Road, Lenzie.
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