Hail to shale as the way forward

GRANGEMOUTH plant owner Ineos has bought the majority share of a shale gas exploration licence for Scotland.

Ineos is investing £350 million in new infrastructure facilities to import cheap shale gas from the US. Ineos believes that using shale gas from Scotland will give it another source. This will be welcome news for the 1,370 workforce.

However enter the fly in the ointment, Green MSP Patrick Harvie. He says Scotland must “put the brakes on fracking. Exploiting fossil fuels is something we can’t afford to do”.

America is the only country in the world to have reduced its CO2 emissions thanks to shale gas replacing coal. It is shipping its unwanted coal all over the world to be used to produce cheap electricity and there is not a Carbon Capture and Storage plant in sight.

Can Mr Harvie explain how Scotland, with a miniscule 0.15 per cent of global emissions, can save the planet by not extracting shale gas or exploiting fossil fuels when the rest of the world are doing so to grow their economies?

Clark Cross, Linlithgow