Holyrood move fuels doubts over £1bn plan for green energy plants

Published on Tuesday 23 November 2010 14:32

FRESH doubts over plans for four biomass energy plants have been raised after a Nationalist MSP launched a parliamentary bid to block the schemes.

Shirley-Anne Somerville has won cross-party backing for a campaign calling for the Scottish Government to halt large-scale schemes such as those proposed for Leith, Dundee, Grangemouth and Rosyth.

The "green energy" plants proposed by the firm Forth Energy would generate electricity from woodchips, the majority of which would come from forests overseas, although some Scottish chips would be used.

Although the company has insisted it will use "sustainable" sources for the 1 billion venture, some of the material will be shipped to Scotland from as far afield as Canada and the US.

Ms Somerville insists no biomass plants should be given the go-ahead until concerns have been addressed over their environmental credentials and detailed research has been carried out into the impact they will have on local communities.

Although local authorities will have a say on whether the plants get the go-ahead, the final decisions will be left to the Scottish Government.

However, government ministers are said to be divided over the benefits of biomass plants amid concerns they will be a blight on future development and could take decades to become carbon neutral.

The Lothians SNP MSP has joined forces with Labour MSP Malcolm Chisholm to promote a motion in the Scottish Parliament calling for an "independent assessment" of biomass plants before the government makes a decision on Forth Energy's schemes.

She said: "I would like a moratorium on any of these schemes until proper research is carried out. No final decisions should be taken until we can see all the evidence about biomass plants.

"I want to see independent research on the impact that they will have.

"This could affect MSPs across the country if they end up with a scheme in their constituency or if biomass plants have an impact on the forestry industry."

Other MSPSs to back the Holyrood motion include Nationalists Jamie Hepburn, Kenneth Gibson, Bill Kidd, Rob Gibson and Aileen Campbell, Labour's Cathy Peattie and Lib Dem Hugh O'Donnell.

Alastair Tibbitt, spokesman for the Greener Leith campaign, which has spent months fighting plans for a biomass plant at Leith Docks, said: "It's gratifying to see so much cross-party support for the campaign, which has also attracted more than 300 signatures. It makes it much more likely there will be parliamentary debate on all this."

Calum Wilson, managing director of Forth Energy, said: "We have no intention of putting any of our proposals on hold.

"Everything we have done has been in line with Scottish Government requirements. We have commissioned independent research and reports and we think the proposals we are pursuing are robust."