KENNY ON THE ATTACK.

MACASKILL SLAMS ROBBERY OF SCOTLAND’S ENERGY BOUNTY WHILE HALF OF SCOTS FACE FUEL POVERTY THIS WINTER

ALBA Depute Leader Kenny MacAskill will this evening (Tuesday) use a Commons Debate to slam the “robbery of Scotland’s rich energy bounty while half of all Scots households face fuel poverty this winter.”

Mr MacAskill will use the debate to highlight that the Eastern Link undersea cable, a multi-billion pound infrastructure project –  will transport 4 GigaWatt of electricity south, via high-voltage direct current subsea cables, enough to  power 2.8 million homes.  Two undersea cables will run, one from Peterhead in northeast Scotland to Selby, North Yorkshire and another from Torness, in his constituency of East Lothian, to Hawthorn Point, County Durham.

Mr MacAskill is demanding to know what the people of Scotland will receive in return in the form of jobs, including supply chain jobs, financial payments, both to the Scottish Government and Local councils and what the community benefit will be?

Speaking in the debate Mr MacAskill will state:

“Scotland has been bestowed with a great natural bounty.

“Scotland has 60% of Britain’s onshore wind capacity and 25% of Europe’s potential offshore wind. References to the Saudi Arabia of wind, largely refer to Scotland or Scottish waters.

“What’s clear is that Scotland’s natural bounty and the current grid constraint to access markets show the need for the Eastern Link. It builds on the existing grid and allows for additional capacity. That my own constituency has been chosen’s also logical.

“The site near Torness is on the existing national grid with the nuclear power station there. And it’s there and up the coast at Cockenzie, at the site of the old coal power station, again on the national grid, where major offshore wind fields will come ashore. The site in Aberdeenshire has been chosen for similar reasons and the destination points in England are near existing power stations. 

“So, the project will ease the capacity issues on the existing grid. It’s therefore a sensible project and one that everyone should support. Its construction is not the issue, nor should it be in dispute.

“But where’s the windfall for Scotland as a nation from this natural bounty? Where’s the wealth that should flow along with the energy from this vital resource?

“Where’s the benefit for those communities, such as my own in East Lothian, which will be able to see the turbines on their hills and off their shores. Scotland is Energy Rich, yet Scots are fuel poor?

“It is no comfort to those unable to heat their homes in my constituency that they may see the turbines turning either on or offshore. Indeed, that just adds insult to injury.

“What’s in it for them and for their Nation from this natural bounty, that our land and communities have been blessed with?

“Where’s the payment for or financial compensation for our renewable energy, being taken south or even sold abroad?

“Where’s the jobs in Scotland and in its communities from the industry itself that should follow, never mind the supply chain required to maintain it?

“Where’s the businesses that should be locating next to this clean and cheap energy, along with the technology that’s required for it and even springs from it?

“The turbines that are coming off our shores, should see our current yards vibrant and almost every estuary in Scotland required for their construction. Yet BiFab and Arnish lie dormant, and the work is going south or abroad, whether to the Netherlands or even Indonesia. That’s simply unacceptable and with energy policy largely reserved the UK government must take the blame.

“Where’s the payment for the resource being transmitted south. What cash has been received or compensation made for the asset taken? 

It seems that the payment to the Scottish Government amounts to precisely zero? There’s nothing being paid in either regular payments for the energy provided or even a lump sum in lieu. The only payment to be made will be a very modest remittance to Crown Estate Scotland for the cabling landing on the foreshore. A few bawbees, as we say in Scotland, hardly what’s received in Saudi Arabia or Norway for their natural bounty.

In conclusion Mr MacAskill will state:

“The Eastern Link project deserves support. But there must be compensation for Scotland for the energy flowing from it as there must be benefit for the communities where it lands.

Following on from its first natural bounty in oil and gas, Scotland has been blessed with a second in offshore wind. It’s essential that our country and her communities now benefit from it.”                

ENDS

Full Speech                                          

Speaking in the Adjournment Debate on 25 October 2022 in the House of Commons on the Eastern Link undersea cable and electricity generation and regional development Kenny MacAskill MP for East Lothian will state:

The Eastern HVDC Link is a multi-billion-pound project. Taking up to 4GigaWatt of clean power from Scotland to England via high-voltage direct current subsea cables. In cost and scale, it’s the largest electricity transmission investment in the UK’s recent history.

Two undersea cables will run. One from Peterhead in northeast Scotland to Selby, North Yorkshire and another from Torness, in my constituency of East Lothian, to Hawthorn Point, County Durham.  Preparatory work can already be seen on and offshore in my constituency as a transmission station’s constructed and soundings are taken for subsea cabling.

What can possibly be wrong with that you might ask? For of course it makes sense. Scotland has a surfeit of electricity and power. Already almost 97% of Scotland’s domestic electricity supply comes from renewable energy. In the north of Scotland, 100% of domestic electricity has been produced by renewables on many days. Scotland has been bestowed with a great natural bounty.

For almost all its history Scotland’s geography has been an impediment in many ways. Distant from markets and with a climate that Scots have more often cursed than blessed. The four seasons in one day is sometimes the reality not just the humour of Billy Connolly. Now location and even climate are of great advantage. 

Scotland has 60% of Britain’s onshore wind capacity and 25% of Europe’s potential offshore wind. References to the Saudi Arabia of wind, largely refer to Scotland or Scottish waters. Those wind asset add to existing hydro schemes along with tidal and wave projects still largely to be commercialised. But as with floating offshore wind, concept will become reality.

One offshore site alone, Berwick Bank, at the mouth of the Firth of Forth between East Lothian and Fife, will provide enough power for almost 3 million households. Scotland only has 2.4 million households. That field alone providing for all of Scotland’s needs and there are many more. 

Hence transmitting the surplus energy south’s sensible. Providing the supply needed south of the border from the surplus produced in Scotland. Also allowing for access to the European network. Energy supply as we’ve been finding to our cost from war in Ukraine is transnational. Accessing European markets is an economic opportunity for Scotland and a necessity for other lands seeking new energy sources as Putin switches off Russian gas. It also provides for the transition all nations require to make, as global warming threatens our planet.

However, there is a problem. That’s grid capacity. Scotland’s renewable resource cannot get to market, as the transmission system cannot cope with the volume that’s produced. As offshore comes on stream that situation will only worsen.

It results in the absurdity of 17.6% of turbines being switched off on an annual basis, the majority in Scotland. Turbines are curtailed not due to lack of wind but due to lack of grid capacity. That absurdity’s compounded by the perversity that energy suppliers are paid more to switch off than provide power and rates paid are highest in winter.

Debates on debacle of the privatisation of national infrastructure and the urgent need to provide for battery storage and the opportunities from green hydrogen are for another day. But they are locally based solutions that must be progressed urgently. Simply cabling 40% of the Berwick Bank energy directly south is another. But to do so without any compensatory payment to Scotland is frankly theft of a nations natural resource. But that too is a debate for another day. 

What’s clear is that Scotland’s natural bounty and the current grid constraint to access markets show the need for the Eastern Link. It builds on the existing grid and allows for additional capacity. That my own constituency has been chosen’s also logical.

The site near Torness is on the existing national grid with the nuclear power station there. And it’s there and up the coast at Cockenzie, at the site of the old coal power station, again on the national grid, where major offshore wind fields will come ashore. The site in Aberdeenshire has been chosen for similar reasons and the destination points in England are near existing power stations. 

So, the project will ease the capacity issues on the existing grid. It’s therefore a sensible project and one that everyone should support. Its construction is not the issue, nor should it be in dispute.

But where’s the windfall for Scotland as a nation from this natural bounty. Where’s the wealth that should flow along with the energy from this vital resource.

Where’s the benefit for those communities, such as my own in East Lothian, which will be able to see the turbines on their hills and off their shores. Scotland is Energy Rich, yet Scots are fuel poor.

It is no comfort to those unable to heat their homes in my constituency that they may see the turbines turning either on or offshore. Indeed, that just adds insult to injury.

What’s in it for them and for their Nation from this natural bounty, that our land and communities have been blessed with.

Where’s the payment for or financial compensation for our renewable energy, being taken south or even sold abroad?

Where’s the jobs in Scotland and in its communities from the industry itself that should follow, never mind the supply chain required to maintain it?

Where’s the businesses that should be locating next to this clean and cheap energy, along with the technology that’s required for it and even springs from it.

Of course, this isn’t Scotland’s first natural bounty. There was an earlier one in the 1960’ and 70s. That was Scotland’s Oil and Gas. As the McCrone report commissioned by a British Government showed Scotland should have been one of the richest countries in Europe.  No wonder they hid it from us. 

For at the same time across the North Sea Norway likewise accessed that bounty. She’s prospered   and now has a Sovereign Wealth Fund for future generations that Scotland can only look at and weep. Our blessing was used by Thatcher to smash the trade unions and by Blair to wage war in Iraq. The oil and gas remain though transition we must. What remains and that can be used must benefit the Scottish people. But that too is a separate debate

But what it shows and why its relevant to this debate is that we’ve been blessed once again. But we mustn’t get fooled again. The Eastern Link project is sensible and required. But where’s the benefit for Scotland and her communities. 

The turbines that are coming off our shores, should see our current yards vibrant and almost every estuary in Scotland required for their construction. Yet BiFab and Arnish lie dormant, and the work is going south or abroad, whether to the Netherlands or even Indonesia. That’s simply unacceptable and with energy policy largely reserved the UK government must take the blame.

But that crime’s compounded by the incompetence of the Scottish Government in the Scotwind auction. There the Scottish fields have been sold off cheap, netting £700 million whilst New York garnered $4.3 billion dollars for a quarter of what was on offer in Scotland. 

Those mistakes can and must be reversed but the Eastern Link Project’s in danger of compounding that. Where’s the wealth, jobs and businesses?

Where’s the payment for the resource being transmitted south. What cash has been received or compensation made for the asset taken? 

It seems that the payment to the Scottish Government amounts to precisely zero? There’s nothing being paid in either regular payments for the energy provided or even a lump sum in lieu. The only payment to be made will be a very modest remittance to Crown Estate Scotland for the cabling landing on the foreshore. A few bawbees, as we say in Scotland, hardly what’s received in Saudi Arabia or Norway for their natural bounty.

That’s nationally but what about locally. Where’s the payment that should accrue to East Lothian and to other communities, both north and south of the border from offshore wind coming ashore. The only area that really benefitted from Scotland’s discovery of oil was Shetland. There payments from oil and gas coming into Sullom Voe were negotiated by the island’s council. It was largely down to the genius of one man, the Chief Executive Ian Clark.

It wasn’t a huge figure, and it certainly wasn’t a disincentive for investment. But the funds it produced allowed Shetland to flourish. Able to provide facilities that even larger mainland councils could only look at an envy. Public and sports facilities in small communities, ferry and bus services operating from early to late, local schools staying open or even expanding.

That’s how it should have been with oil and gas across all of Scotland. It must be how it will be in communities where the second natural bounty’s arriving. The benefits for Shetland from oil and gas must be available from offshore wind in East Lothian, Yorkshire or wherever it’s landing.

Chief Executives in authorities like my own would love to replicate Mr Clark. But they can’t. The reason being that whilst there’s legislative provision for community benefit for onshore wind farms there’s no equivalent for onshore. That needs fixed. 

It needn’t be a sum that would discourage investment. But it would be sufficient to benefit communities significantly. It should be levied on the producers and paid to the local authorities, set by statute and subject to review. Allowing for standardization of rate and where production cost factors and energy prices could be factored in if needs be. 

Of course, energy providers do make voluntary payments to local communities. But the right to community benefit should be statutory. Not discretionary. Nor should it be capable of being used by the companies for pet projects or simply increasing their profile. Which is why it should accrue to the local authority allowing them, as in Shetland to benefit the entire area, not simply a few small communities or certain organisations. For it’s essential that offshore wind benefit local communities, as well as Scotland. 

Where also are the jobs in these communities that should be flowing from this bounty. As with the turbines, they’re largely heading south or abroad. The construction contracts for the transmission station have gone to big corporates and local labour and business are excluded. Filling a few hotel rooms or hiring a few security guards shouldn’t be the only work available locally from this bounty.

And what about the businesses that should be locating where energy’s flowing ashore and where it should be an incentive to locate. They seem to be heading south with the energy that’s arriving. There’ll be only 4 permanent jobs at the transmission station. That’s perhaps understandable but what about the business that should be opening and clustered near it. It’s why battery storage and hydrogen projects mentioned earlier are essential. As is ending the absurdity of higher energy prices being levied where the energy’s being produced.

Scottish businesses should be booming not constrained by higher energy costs. Jobs should be flourishing across Scotland, especially in the communities where the energy’s landing. This looks remarkably like our bounty’s being taken with no payment being made, let alone benefit accruing to our country or communities.

In summary, the Eastern Link project deserves support. But there must be compensation for Scotland for the energy flowing from it as there must be benefit for the communities where it lands.

Following on from its first natural bounty in oil and gas, Scotland has been blessed with a second in offshore wind. It’s essential that our country and her communities now benefit from it.          

BEAT THE CENSORS

Unfortunately some pro Indy websites are not pro Indy. They are pro SNP sites and ban any content on their sites which dares to question the SNP or the SNP leader. They seek to censor discussion and free expression. Fortunately many of my readers share the articles on Yours for Scotland frequently and because of this the attempted censorship is proving ineffective. This support is very important and I thank everyone who share and protect freedom of speech and choice.

FREE SUBSCRIPTIONS

Are available on the Home and Blog pages of this site. This will ensure you will receive notification of all new posts by email and be the first to get key information when it is released.

SALVO

The progress of Salvo has been the most encouraging development of 2022. It is doing sterling work educating Scots about the Claim of Right and spelling out what it means that the Scottish people are sovereign, not any Parliament. All donations to this site for the remainder of 2022 will be forwarded to Salvo to support them in developing and expanding this valuable work.

LIBERATION.SCOT

Please register at Liberation.scot and join the mass membership organisation that will be the signatories to our application to the UN, debate and organise a new Scottish Constitution. The membership of Liberation is also where the first members of Scotland’s National Congress will be balloted for selection.