I would place a bet on Scotland shivering by the year 2020 with power cuts and very high energy prices. We tend to forget that energy policy is a devolved power and that the lunatics in Edinbugh are worse than the Huhnatics in London. I did not realise that the SNP was aiming for a target of sourcing all energy from 100% renewables by 2020. This has naturally attracted some sceptical attention, especially with the lack of a clear public strategy to achieve this goal.
The Institution of Mechanical Engineers criticised the Government plan to meet 100% of electricity demand from green sources by 2020.
It said such a move "may increase fuel poverty and turn Scotland from a net exporter to a net importer of energy".
While Colin Brown, director of engineering at the institution, said ministers were "absolutely right" to try to tap into Scotland's "huge potential" for renewable power, he added: "We have serious concerns that the over-ambitious 2020 target will push up prices and, combined with the Government's distaste for nuclear power, turn Scotland from a net exporter to a net importer of energy.
"Without any clear, workable and engineering-based plan of action, it is doubtful whether these targets are achievable at all. Holyrood needs to draw up a detailed, achievable and public strategy on how they plan to deliver these targets."
We would expect the SNP to obfuscate, to huff and defend the nonsensical. Clearly, the politicised quango that is Scottish Friends of the Earth falls into the same bracket.
Francis Stuart, policy officer for Friends of the Earth Scotland, hit out at the institution's "ill-founded conclusions on the achievability of Scotland's renewable targets".
He said the 2020 target was "completely achievable" and added: "Renewables are the only genuinely sustainable solution to our energy problems."
Unable to actually criticise the Institution's call for a clear, costed strategy, (also known as common sense), the supporters are reduced to hot air. It is thus because we say it is thus. Windbaggery may suck taxes but it won't move windmills.
Hidden within this nonsense is the declining oil and gas reserves. Does the SNP's attachment to this target motivated by a need to shore up prospective independence through energy imports. Under the SNP, would oil and gas be too good for the Scots?
