Powerful debate

I am gratified to note that Niall Stuart (Letters, 16 May) readily admits that his industry lobby group, Scottish Renewables, has a firm and seemingly permanent foothold within the Scottish Parliament.

He implies, however, that it is perfectly normal and acceptable for a lobby group such as his to be allowed such privileged access. This surely cannot be acceptable.

He then clouds the issue regarding community payments by developers to local communities by stating such payments are not a material consideration in determining a planning application. Perhaps not in the strictest sense, but councils are starting to siphon off large amounts of such “local” payments for “broader council benefit”.

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In his reference to a poll suggesting that 71 per cent of “Scots” support wind power, he omits to mention that, of the 1,009 people surveyed, only 81 were located in Scotland, and those aged over 64 were excluded.

Finally, I simply cannot ignore his counter-factual claim that wind energy is “protecting consumers from rising energy bills”.

When additional costs such as infrastructure and generating backup are included, wind- generated electricity is the most expensive means of building electricity generation facilities, as concluded by consultant Mott MacDonald in its report for the Department of Energy and Climate Change in June 2010. Then, of course, there are the operating subsidies included in all our bills.

GM Lindsay

Whinfield Gardens

Kinross