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Compromised Greens ask questions of Scottish Government on future of wave energy industry

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The Scottish Greens are a muted force these days, having thrown their lot in willy nilly with the SNP and the separatist movement – at the cost of their integrity in deciding to say nothing to warn their adherents about serious flaws in the indy prospectus [of which they were very well aware].

They also find themselves in an awkward position with any challenge they might issue to the party of government which is now effectively their principal. The tiger to which their party hitched on to has whirled into its covered wagon a membership whose increase may be modest compared to the tsunami flooding into the SNP, but is nevertheless far greater and far faster in its arrival than anything the Greens might have dreamed. That’s a down payment on good behaviour.

All the Greens can do is to try to make the occasional respectful intervention from time to time, one of which came today, 9th December, with Alison Johnstone, Green MSP for Lothian, writing to Energy Minister Fergus Ewing in the wake of the withdrawal of government funding from the wave energy sector.

Ms Johnstone is asking for facts in answer to growing concerns about the future of the wave energy industry in Scotland.

The Greens are calling for the Scottish Government to use some of the money it received from last week’s UK Autumn Statement to support jobs in the companies affected.

Edinburgh-based Pelamis, which employs 50 people, is in administration – with the deadline for offers of interest to acquire it passed today. Aquamarine Power, also Edinburgh-based, is making most of its 50 staff redundant.

Following earlier questions from Ms Johnstone, the Scottish Government announced the setting up of an agency to share knowledge about wave energy. This was quickly seen to be a pointless sop to the now enfeebled Greens since this body has, of yet, been given no staff, no budget nor any timetable for development.

Alison Johnstone says: ‘Wave energy has huge economic potential for Scotland. Public funding clearly remains crucial to the industry at this stage, so I’m calling on the Scottish Government to use some of the millions it received last week from Westminster to support wave power jobs.

‘Ministers need to reassess their priorities because they are abandoning wave, while leaving the door open to unwelcome energy developments such as fracking.’

This is a tricky issue. Wave energy is unarguably harvestable and Scotland has undoubtedly become the repository of serious international expertise in the relevant sciences and technologies. This expertise is valuable – but only if wave power shows the capacity to make economic sense to the extent that it is taken up internationally.

To date, it seems as if its cost/benefit ratio doesn’t stack up.

Energy Minister, Fergus Ewing, said today that the Scottish Government cannot, legally or budgetarily, 100% support development companies – but restated government ‘support’ for the industry.

This may well be a sector Scotland has to let go because the business case simply may not be defensible. It is hard at any time to lay this sort of truth before an industry; and politically, in today’s Scotland, coming clean on such issues is not an option for a government offering the best possible everything in the best of all possible worlds.

A raslity is that, contrary to Ms Johnstone’s request, given the range of frontline demands on the public purse, it would be very difficult for the Scottish government to deploy a wedge of the funding allocated to Scotland  from George Osborne’s Autumn Statement.

Ms Johnstone’s reference to wave energy as a preferable alternative to fracking is correct is environmental terms but not in terms of meeting energy needs in a troubled short term, where the UK as a whole will find it increasingly difficult to meet the demands of baseload. Analysts have warned that this very winter is likely to be the first where we experience brown outs, planned or spontaneous.

The power to licence fracking is one of the additional powers to be devolved to Scotland. The Scottish Government, which had asked for such powers will get them. This may well be one of those ‘be careful what you wish for’ situations – between the proverbial rock and a hard place.

With renewables constitutionally unable to deliver baseload, fracking is likely, for the entire UK, to be inevitable. The drive will have to be to find the regime to protect the environment  – immediately and in ultimate disposal – from the environmentally damaging fluid wastes that result, in very substantial volumes,  from the fracking process.

This focus will also have to limit the process’s demands on the water supply – of which millions of gallons are taken for a single frack.Just at a time when the independence and moral authority of the Greens – in their own core interests – may be most needed, it has been sold off in a madcap political adventure.


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