Pilot Light Lit On New Gas Plant

Two stories in quick succession have me wondering why the Scottish Government bothered with setting targets to reduce emissions to combat climate change.

Firstly, from the west of the country, a judge has thrown out objections to the proposed new Hunterston Coal Power Station. The government apparently "welcomes" the judgement.

Secondly, in the east of the country, permission has been granted for Scottish Power to knock down Cockenzie Coal Power Station and build a new Gas Power Station in it's place. Again, the government thinks this is wonderful. So too, incidentally, does the current leader of Scottish Labour.

We're sold this new gas plant with the promise that it will halve emissions from the old plant. That completely misses the point. We should be getting rid of the emissions from fossil fuel power station entirely, not settling for halving them.

And, god help us, Energy Minister Fergus Ewing gets in a bit of a muddle by claiming fossil fuel is clean:

"Scotland will still need conventional, clean fossil fuel power to provide a steady supply of electricity."

He means, of course, the Holy Grail for the dirty coal industry, Carbon Capture And Storage, a technology that does not yet work (if it ever will). New Gassy Cockenzie will apparently be "carbon capture ready". That's a meaningless phrase. Technically, my backside is "methane-capture ready".

So, one new fossil fuel plant and one that has cleared another hurdle. I believe this now entitles us all to shout "Bollocks!" every time Alex Salmond mentions what the government are doing to work towards our legally-binding climate change targets.