Report to the People
28th May 2007
Energetic Debate
Like running
water, mobile phones and English football fans falling out with the police in
Europe, electricity is something which today we take for granted.
Not for us
getting up at 4 in the morning to set the fire, just to get a cup of tea at
breakfast. We don’t burn gas
lamps or spend all day washing clothes by hand.
We just flick switches, turn dials and push buttons.
But just
because electricity has always been there, ready to do our bidding, doesn’t
mean it always will be. Indeed, as
experts at the Royal Society of Edinburgh pointed out last week, unless key
energy policy decisions are taken shortly, we risk power shortages in years
ahead.
Renewing
generation infrastructure takes time. We
can’t have our existing power stations coming to the end of their lives while
their replacements are still being built.
We need, of
course, to look at using less energy and at harnessing Scotland’s natural
resources. Not only is this
environmentally friendly, constructing wind turbines could keep shipyards like
Ferguson’s in work.
But where
will the remaining base-load supply will come from?
When fossil fuel power stations produce 18 million tonnes of CO2 in
Scotland every year and when there are questions about the security of oil and
gas supplies, I would argue that it’s foolish to dismiss nuclear power out of
hand.
The new
Scottish Executive Ministers might not agree with me. But,
if so, they need to come up with a serious alternative.
They can’t leave us in the dark.
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