Scotland’s economy could suffer a crippling blow if the Scottish Government doesn’t learn the lessons of the Longannet closure and apply them to oil and gas, according to a respected MSP.
Patrick Harvie said the renewable energy is poised to become “the backbone of Scotland’s industry” but work must be put in to ensure it is ready to take over when the North Sea supply comes to an end.
Ministers have been criticised for not doing enough to prepare in advance for the coming closure of the power plant in March, with an emergency taskforce reporting back earlier this week on progress to deliver the Economic Recovery Plan to support affected workers, business and communities.
Mr Harvie, co-convener of the Scottish Greens, said: “Unless we invest now, the economic damage when we come to the end of the oil age will be profound. The situation, in the north east in particular, is a little bit like the situation that’s just taken place in Longannet in Fife but on a giant scale.
“We have known for years and years and years that Longannet was going to close. Now, it has closed two or three years earlier than might have been predicted but we knew that plant was going.
“The last 10 years of its life should have been geared to investing in the local community, developing a more diverse economic base, creating the opportunities for what was going to come after that plant closed.
“Instead, what we have is an announcement of closure and it is all hands to the panic stations with this blame and recrimination about the jobs which have been lost.
“With the north east as well, whether Fergus Ewing is right and it is another 40 years of oil and gas or whether the whole world’s climate scientists are right that we cannot burn all the fossil fuels that we have got, we know that it is finite.
“Why not use the time that we have got left to invest in a transition and make sure that what comes after is a lasting and more sustainable and less environmentally destructive – source of economic prosperity?”
In an interview with The Courier, Mr Harvie also set out his vision for the Greens’ Holyrood election campaign, insisting there is no area of the country where the party cannot have an MSP elected.
He insisted the party could be trusted to be a reasonable critic of an SNP administration, with the Nationalists soaring ahead in polls.
Scottish Government spokesperson
kiandrews@thecourier.co.uk