An SNP splinter group has formed to oppose coal burning in the Firth of Forth.
SNP Members Against Unconventional Oil and Gas (SMAUG) oppose plans by Cluff Natural Resources to invest £250 million to build the UK’s first deep offshore project.
The company says the scheme would create hundreds of new jobs and secure the UK’s energy supply for several decades. Opponents fear Fife is being used as a guinea pig for the process which involves drilling a 12-inch vertical borehole into a coal seam below the sea bed, flushing it with oxygen and igniting it.
SMAUG member and SNP Forth branch member, Ian Black, said: “We can burn North Sea gas or we can burn gas from fracking but we can’t burn both. Why would we choose the one that pollutes our waterways, damages the earth under our homes and damages our health and damages our food and drinks industry?”
The group has teamed up with campaigners Our Forth, who have written to First Minister Nicola Sturgeon to request a meeting on the subject.
Group founder Catherine Shea revealed the name SMAUG was a nod to the fictional dragon and main antagonist in Tolkien’s 1937 novel, The Hobbit, as it would “protect the wee inhabitants of Middle Earth from the long blight of falling house prices and stasis”.
An SNP spokesman said: “There are a range of views across Scotland on issues around unconventional oil and gas, which is why the Scottish Government has put in place a moratorium on fracking to allow a full public consultation where all views can be heard and all evidence can be considered.”