Meeting of the Parliament 04 March 2025
They can meet with SSE but they cannot meet with the people they are meant to represent. If the minister reads the ministerial code, he will see that that is wrong.
When I saw that there was to be another debate on renewable energy, I, like many others, assumed that we would once again be talking about a just transition to renewables or the future of our oil and gas sector—or that there would maybe even be word of the much-delayed energy strategy. I was therefore quite surprised when I saw the focus on nuclear. So, that is this week’s anti-science from this out-of-ideas SNP Government. What should be the most important discussion of our time—how we make sure that we have the energy resources that we need during international destabilisation—instead turns into a nonsense debate that is designed to score political points for this out-of-touch, out-of-ideas SNP Government.
We are living in a time of global uncertainty when most of our energy requirements are still met from oil and gas. At a time when we should be looking at how we can become more energy self-sufficient in the short term and more green in the medium-to-long term, this Government would rather stoke political grievance. We should be looking at how we can fulfil our energy needs by expanding our domestic oil and gas supplies in the short term. We are overreliant on imported oil and gas now, and the SNP wants to increase that by shutting off the taps of the North Sea. Its presumption against new oil and gas is hurting the industry, the north-east and the towns and communities that rely on the sector.
We also know that energy based on solar and wind power is not reliable all year round. We must ensure that we have the required base-load when we need it, which is why so many countries are considering small, modular nuclear reactors. Scotland could be leading the way and at the forefront of that technology, but, once again, this Government insists on holding us back, on false science and on scaremongering. This devolved Government should be harnessing the well-paid and highly skilled workers at Torness and Hunterston, but instead it wants to turn its back on them with its scaremongering and pathetic motion today.