MP questions Brown's green promise

Speaking as the UK Cabinet met in Birmingham, where the Prime Minister said he intended to generate one million "green collar" jobs in the UK, the Scottish National Party's Westminster Energy Spokesperson Mike Weir MP questioned Gordon Brown's commitment by highlighting how the UK government rejected plans for a world-leading carbon capture plant at Peterhead.

Commenting Mr Weir said:

"Not only was Gordon Brown inspired by the Scottish Government to take his Cabinet out of the capital, it seems he is following the SNP administration’s example on policy as well.

"The Scottish Government announces a legislative programme which put a real emphasis on turning Scotland into a sustainable, green country and a week later, we see Mr Brown doing the same.

"The Prime Minister is talking up his own credentials but his memory is very short. He seems to have forgotten that, less than two months ago, the UK Government torpedoed the world-leading Peterhead carbon capture project on the grounds of cost.

"The plant would have been the world's first pre-combustion carbon capture plant. Thanks to the UK government, the project will now be developed in Abu Dhabi rather than the North East of Scotland.

"This underlines how Scotland loses out under control by Westminster. It also raises questions about how committed Brown is to the low-carbon industry.

"The SNP Government is using the devolved responsibilities it has to make Scotland the clean, green powerhouse of Europe – as we have seen recently with the announcement in Fife for the UK's biggest biomass energy plant.

"But the UK government's policy is holding Scotland back from achieving full green energy potential in all areas.

"Instead of the London government's dithering, the Scotland needs to gain full responsibility for energy."

Further information on the Peterhead demonstration project can be found in the Press & Journal article as follows:

Clean-energy plan 'scuppered by cost' Minister admits north-east carbon-capture project torpedoed to save cash

By David Perry

Press & Journal, 19/07/2008

Energy Minister Malcolm Wicks has admitted the UK Government torpedoed plans for a revolutionary £600million clean-electricity project in the north-east to save British taxpayers "hundreds of millions of pounds".

His confession that it was the amount of support BP and Scottish and Southern Energy wanted from the Treasury that led to the. Peterhead scheme being dropped is contained in evidence to the Commons environmental audit committee.

The same committee is expected on Tuesday to criticise government willingness to allow energy giant E.ON to build a coal-fired power station south-east England.

E.ON has promised its Kingsnorth plant will be capable of being retrofitted with a carbon-extraction system to clean up emissions when a commercial version becomes available.

MPs are expected to demand a guarantee that it will be installed.

Mr Wicks told the committee: "As to Peterhead, I do not believe it would have been sensible or proper governance if we were to have a demonstration project that cost the British taxpayer literally hundreds of millions of pounds to give it to the first one that came forward, namely the Miller Field Peterhead project.

"Perfectly properly, we had a competition and then made the decision – it was controversial but I believe it was the right one – that instead of pre-combustion, it should be post-combustion."

The two decisions forced BP and Scottish Hydro owners Scottish and Southern to pull out of plans to extract carbon from gas landed at St Fergus – a pre-combustion process – before using it to produce "green" electricity.

BP has since decommissioned the Miller field, where it had been intended to inject the carbon to raise pressure and extract more oil.

The pipeline infrastructure remains, meaning it will be possible to think again at a later date.

The scheme is going ahead in the oil-rich Gulf state of Abu Dhabi.

Evidence sent to the committee from Scottish Finance Secretary John Swinney makes it clear the Scottish Government still retains high hopes of using rundown North Sea fields like Miller to bury carbon.

He told MPs: "We believe that Scotland is well-placed to play a leading role in the development of CCS (carbon capture and storage), given our research expertise, the commitment of Scottish industry and our significant storage potential in the North Sea.

"We recognise that time is of the essence in quickly bringing CCS to commercial viability."