It may be no surprise that this Scotsman’s not a huge fan of NS (Nicola Sturgeon to the elctorate, Nippy Sweetie to those who’ve dealt with her on a professional basis). She’s a bigot who’s Scottish Independence idea is founded in English-Hating, not the benefit of Scotland. I do acknowledge her political acumen though, she is very good at her job.
But today she should be genuinely congratulated for asking Honest Boris to think again about the licences granted to develop North Sea fields, including Cambo (a moderate sized field, but a big newbie).
Last week I heard Deirdre Michie from Oil & Gas UK on the radio repeating a common refrain that we need new fossil fuels to keep us going until there’s enough of the renewable stuff, “the backbone of energy transition going forward”. This is not true. As supplies diminish the price increases and we choose alternatives, alternatives’ production increases to meet demand, economies of scale make those cheaper, nobody notices any difference. This can happen quickly. Try looking for a horse-drawn taxicab home tonight if you don’t believe me. If we produce more we keep the oil cost down and slow sustainable progress.
Her predecessor, Alex the Groper, made a big sell for Scotland’s economic potential due to the tons of global warming we could cause. So it’s a not invisible deal for her to take an about turn. She’s smart enough to not present it as that, he’s history and the world has made a lot less Scot voters dependent on petrochemicals. But all the same, she deserves plaudits to keep it up.
Greenpeace said her letter to Honest Boris was “just a PR exercise”. They’re right. But that’s how politics works. Unfortunately few of them do it because of what’s right, so when what’s right has PR value for them they need to be encouraged.