Hansard

I am pleased to take part in today’s debate on an issue that is of huge importance to Fife and to Scotland. Longannet sits on the west side of my constituency and many of its 260 employees are my constituents. Hundreds more are employed as contractors and subcontractors, and many local jobs in Kincardine and west Fife are dependent on the plant having a future.

As members are all well aware, Longannet has been generating electricity since 1970 and has the capacity to put around 2,000MW into the national grid. When I met Longannet management and workers just a few months ago, they were confident that there could be a future for the plant to 2020 and for quite a few years beyond that, but events in the past 10 days appear to cast doubt on that and there is now renewed concern about security of supply and about the future of the workforce. That is no surprise when we consider that Longannet keeps the lights on for more than 2 million homes and businesses.

I am a supporter of renewable energy and I think that we need to do more to promote renewable energy sources, just as we all need to do more to save energy if we are to have any hope of meeting our climate change targets in Scotland. However, we must also be able to guarantee that when we flick the light switch the lights will come on. We need backup and we cannot rely solely on an energy supply that depends on when the wind blows or when water flows.

About 25 per cent of the energy that we consume is produced at Longannet, and although we are hearing assurances that security of supply is not an issue, if we want to be self-sufficient in Scotland, as SNP members want, that is clearly a problem. Right now, Scotland relies on imports of English electricity to meet demand in one out of every six days. Professor Younger, who has already been quoted by Murdo Fraser, has warned that Longannet’s closure would leave Scotland in “serious trouble” and “absolutely dependent” on England to keep the lights on.

The talks between Scottish Power and National Grid have apparently broken down, which sparked this debate, and it seems after digging deeper that—as the minister has confirmed—transmission charges were not part of the negotiations. More is likely to come out about that in the coming weeks. We continue to hear conflicting accounts from all who are involved in the talks; such manoeuvring is not helpful at all for the workforce or their families at a time when all who are involved should be concentrating on working constructively to secure a sustainable solution. My constituents want to know that Scottish Power and National Grid are round the table negotiating to find a solution that maximises the life of Longannet and secures their jobs into the future. They also want assurances from the Scottish Government that it is doing all that it can to find a solution that will support the local community in and around Kincardine. I am pleased to see the minister nodding his head at that.

We must plan to meet our energy needs now and in the future. Workers are worried about their jobs, their mortgages and their families, and they want to see action. The Scottish Government has long anticipated that Longannet may have to close by 2020. Why is it, then, that so little action has been taken to secure new employment investment into the Kincardine area in order to ease the transition, to support the local community and to build its resilience?

On behalf of all the people who are directly affected in my constituency, I would be grateful if the minister and the Scottish Government could—rather than trying to shift the blame on to Westminster or others—set out what practical steps they will take to protect the hundreds of jobs in my constituency that depend on Longannet, to prepare the local community should the worst happen, and to keep the lights on across Scotland, now and in the future. The Scottish Government needs a plan for the future of Longannet, and it needs it now.

An important related energy matter that is of huge concern to my constituents in Kincardine and the surrounding villages on the Forth is underground coal gasification. Unfortunately, I am running out of time, but I hope that the Scottish Government will act to extend the fracking moratorium to cover that extremely risky and potentially dangerous technique. As Friends of the Earth Scotland says in its excellent briefing for today’s debate,

“two out of three is not good enough”.

UCG must be included in the moratorium too. My constituents in Kincardine and west Fife want an assurance from the Scottish Government that there will be no fracking under the Forth; I hope that the minister will listen and take action.