Energy options

As George Kerevan writes (Perspective, 14 December) Scotland pioneered the extraction of oil from shale. There was once a big industry in West Lothian, which has left behind massive reddish bings of shale waste. I have long felt that these could be used by a Scottish film industry to represent the “Wild West” – they look very like the scenery in many cowboy films.

Scotland’s shale oil industry was killed by a UK government, which imposed a higher tax on the petrol it produced than on petrol from other sources, yet another “Union dividend” which underlines the need for us to manage our own resources.

David Stevenson

Blacket Place

Edinburgh

Trevor Rigg (Letters, 14 
December) dismisses fracking without offering a reasonable alternative that would cut 
energy prices and provide 
reliable baseload electricity to keep Scotland’s lights on.

Offshore wind farms can only provide intermittent supply and as one of the most expensive forms of energy will lead to ­increased fuel poverty.

As for river estuary tidal turbines, we would be required to destroy the marine environment for hundreds of miles to replace just one power station and even then at high and low tide they would switch off entirely.

Alan Black

Camus Avenue

Edinburgh