Energy fallacy

The Commission on Energy
Regulation’s report on energy in an independent Scotland is the latest rhetorical attempt by the SNP to create legitimacy for self-serving fantasy.

No one knows what will 
happen to the energy market in an independent Scotland just as no one knows what will happen to Scotland’s currency or EU membership.

The problem with energy, as with the currency and EU membership, is that the Nationalists insist that all the advantages of present arrangements Scotland enjoy as part of the Union will continue. At the same time, however, all the disadvantages the Nationalists see in these arrangements will disappear, thanks to the enlightened rule of an independent Scottish Government.

I suppose it is theoretically possible that pigs might fly, but few investors will be betting hard cash on the rosy scenario presented by the Commission on Energy Regulation.

Scottish renewable development has only been possible because of billions of pounds of subsidy and infrastructure spending by the UK Government. Generating renewable energy in Scotland continues to require high levels of consumer subsidy and cannot compete with cheaper electricity from Europe.

It is hard to imagine energy suppliers paying over the odds for Scottish renewable energy, let alone an rUK government requiring its hard-pressed voters to subsidise electricity generation in a country which has turned its back on the Union.

Linda Holt

Pittenweem

Anstruther, Fife