Stephen sets out nuclear challenge to Labour

The Scottish Liberal Democrat leader set out the battleground for the Holyrood elections by insisting it was obvious that the two coalition parties would go into the election campaign with opposing policies on nuclear power.

Speaking on the day he announced a major new boost for renewable energy in Scotland as an Executive minister, Mr Stephen took the opportunity to stress not only his own party's position but also to draw attention to Labour's approach.

Mr Stephen told BBC Scotland's Good Morning Scotland programme: "At the next election, at the next set of Scottish parliamentary elections, I think it would be very unlikely that the Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats would have the same manifesto policy.

"I have made it clear that the Liberal Democrats' policy will be no nuclear power stations in Scotland. That is going to be - I think after Tony Blair's pretty clear statement the other week that nuclear is back on the agenda with a vengeance - I think that will be a different position from the Labour Party position.

"But that is surely the very stuff of politics; people have to make up their own minds."

Mr Stephen did stress the Executive's current agreed position, which is to oppose any new nuclear stations until the issue of waste is resolved.

But his decision to paint such a stark contrast between the Liberal Democrats and Labour on this issue appeared to be blatant electioneering, particularly as the Labour leadership has not announced its policy intentions on nuclear power yet.

It is understood that the Labour leadership has decided to go into the election with a three-pronged strategy, one part of which will be to "keep options open" for new nuclear power stations - a distinct shift from the current Executive position and from the Liberal Democrat approach. However, this policy will not be agreed and signed off by the Labour Party until its policy conference this autumn.

Mr Stephen used the opportunity as Deputy First Minister yesterday to announce a 20 million investment to spearhead the drive to make Scotland the powerhouse for clean and renewable energy in Europe.

He told delegates at the All Energy Conference in Aberdeen that global warming represented a "clear and present danger" to the world.

And he claimed that Scotland stood poised to harness its unrivalled potential in wind, wave and tidal power to make a major contribution to climate change.

Mr Stephen announced that biomass, marine, offshore wind and hydrogen developments would be targeted with an additional 20 million funding support to ensure that Scotland's natural resources can be fully exploited.

A total of 8 million is to be invested to promote marine energy projects around Scotland's coast, 7.5 million to support a new biomass action plan, 1.5 million to support the development of hydrogen and fuel cells schemes, and an extra 3 million to support microrenewables schemes by communities and individual householders.

But Mark Ruskell, the Scottish Green Party MSP, attacked the spending plan as "a drop in the ocean".

He said: "Though this package is certainly better than nothing, there is still too little money and support for marine and micro-renewables, inadequate help for consumers wanting to generate green energy, and too little ambition to secure Scotland's future in the global, low-carbon economy."

Richard Lochhead, the shadow energy minister, said: "While we welcome any additional financial support for green energy, this funding announcement for renewables is insignificant when compared to the billions of pounds Tony Blair is gearing up to spend as a subsidy for new nuclear power stations in Scotland."

Scottish Executive's stance

THE Scottish Executive's policy on new nuclear power stations is a compromise between the Liberal Democrats and Labour.

The Executive will oppose any new nuclear power stations in Scotland until the issue of waste has been resolved.

This was designed to keep the parties together for the life of the parliament.

The issue of waste is being dealt with by a government committee, but both parties agree it has not been resolved yet and, conveniently, they do not believe it will be before next year's election.

The Liberal Democrats' view

THE Liberal Democrats are anti-nuclear power and pro-renewables, and the Scottish party will go into next year's Holyrood elections with that policy in their manifesto.

A spokesman said: "We are opposed to new nuclear power stations in Scotland. We believe that Scotland has the ability and the opportunity to become a powerhouse of renewable energy.

"We can beat the targets the Executive set for the amount of electricity generated by renewables, if we take the opportunity seriously."

Labour's likely policy

LABOUR'S manifesto policy on nuclear power has not been agreed officially yet.

It is understood that it will be based on three key strands:

• Continuing development of renewable energy sources, including wind and wave.

• Renewing the licences of the existing nuclear power stations at Hunterston and Torness, keeping them going until at least 2011 to provide energy while renewables are being built up.

• Keeping options open over the construction of new nuclear power stations in Scotland.