A TOP energy boss has slated the SNP for “glaring inconsistencies” in the Scottish government’s energy policy.
Stuart Paton – former boss of Dana Petroleum – have called the SNP “completely disingenuous” for supporting the North Sea oil industry as well as championing their own green credentials.
The adviser to the oil and gas industry said that whilst the party is moving forwards with renewable energy production, the CO2 emission figures from Scottish oil production are swept under the carpet.
He also claimed that the party’s “unbridled support” for coal-fired power was at odds with their supposedly green ethos.
In a summary of a forthcoming release from Reform Scotland – a think tank – he said that the government has “fervent evangelism for the beauty of the Scottish countryside yet wholesale support for industrial scale wind farms which are having a dramatic effect on the landscape.”
He points out that this is in spite of Scotland being on track to generate all of its electricity from renewables by 2020, without any further wind farms being built.
The Scottish government have said that they support a mix of electricity generation – taking into account the role of the oil and gas industry – whilst in the long term moving to a “low-carbon energy system.”
