WEIR SPEAKS IN ENERGY BILL DEBATE

WEIR SPEAKS IN ENERGY BILL DEBATE

NORTH SEA INFRASTRUCTURE INVESTMENT CALL

As the House of Commons debate the Energy Bill today (Monday) SNP Energy spokesperson Mike Weir MP welcomed moves to set up a funding mechanism for Carbon Capture and Storage but strongly criticised the UK government's “dithering” that led to the loss of the world leading Peterhead project.

The new bill will set up a funding mechanism for CCS by introducing a levy on electricity suppliers.

Mr Weir said:

“These measures are better late than never. Government ministers are very keen on telling us that we have world leadership in this technology, although sadly I doubt if that is now entirely correct.

“Scotland lost an excellent opportunity to lead with world when the proposed CCS trial at Peterhead was lost to Abu Dhabi after dithering by this Labour Government. The reason, it appears, is that the government did not want to proceed with the project as they wished instead to concentrate on pre combustion processes. They intended to develop an export industry, particularly to developing nations such as China but their dithering has led to China developing its own industry and, indeed, one of the few commercial projects up and running is that in Beijing. Instead of leading the world, the UK is in real danger of being left behind.

“Peterhead could also have helped develop a method that would have been of particular benefit to this country since it would have allowed gas stations to decarbonise and allow the carbon to be stored in the North Sea’s depleted oil and gas reserves.”

Mr Weir added that UK ministers continued with the prejudice against gas since the definition of a CCS system in the bill clearly ruled out gas systems. The SNP MP also reiterated the need for action to ensure that the current infrastructure in the North Sea was available for CCS.

Mr Weir said:

“I would strongly support the claim of the Longannet project being developed in Fife as a strong candidate for help from this scheme, especially given its proximity to the North Sea and the ability therefore, to enable the current infrastructure of the North Sea oil and gas industry to be utilised in the development of CCS

“The Scottish CO2 study has concluded that there is a possibility that the North Sea could store up to 200 years worth of COs emissions, bringing in a huge amount of work and billions of pounds to the economy over a very long time. The EU is interested in a North Sea grid to help develop CCS.

“This, however, does raise another issue that is not covered in the bill and which must be addressed by the government – how do we ensure that the North Sea infrastructure is in place to enable this to happen. Much of the existing infrastructure is now aged, and as the main fields in the North Sea begin to wind down there is a real danger of losing that essential infrastructure unless action is taken to ensure that it is retained in place.”