Energy proposals are much too little, much too late

We will seek not to repeat ourselves in this morning's briefing. The First Minister has claimed that Scotland could get a 20 per cent public stake in Scotland's energy industry – but only after independence. This is measurably far too little and far too late.

Let us begin with the central claim that this is only possible with independence. This relies on a single line prohibiting the ownership of energy generation in the Scotland Act. As we have pointed out many, many times, there are plenty of work-arounds for that.

Rather than go through that here it will be easier to point you to our short policy paper to explain how it can be done. Basically there are at least five alternative options which enable public ownership of electricity generation; Local Electricity Companies, A National/Local Energy Company, Public/Public Partnerships, A National Mutual Energy Company or Renegotiate the Scotland Act.

On an even more basic level, much more use of community ownership and community benefit schemes can be made – government can't own large-scale generation outright but it can fund community ownership and it can make generous community benefit funds a condition of planning.

The reality is that mostly Scotland is getting negligible amounts of community-owned grid-connected energy and bare minimum amounts of community benefit. To give you an example, last year the total paid in community benefits from wind farms was £30 million. The total value of Scotland’s electricity exports (only the surplus we export) was £1.5 billion. These are outcomes which result from current Scottish Government decisions and practice.

In terms of the Scottish public good, promising to do nothing until after an independence which looks anything but imminent when such corporate-friendly deals with so little real Scottish public benefit are being agreed now is the definition of 'too late'.

And in the context of energy, that the high-point of Scottish Government ambition is to take 20 per cent stakes in energy generation. Compare that with France where EDF is 100 per cent publicly owned and generates 70 – 90 per cent of all of France's energy, using the profits for public good.

There is no difficulty in raising public finance for energy projects and there is no difficulty making a full business case for them. It is next to impossible to lose money in an energy system you control. There is almost no case that can be made for private ownership. Yet the Scottish Government is making the case for 80 per cent private ownership.

The Scottish Government must not be let off the hook on this. It can shape energy policy for the public good now but is refusing to do so and yet it is promising to shape energy policy for the public good at an ill-defined point in the future. So why not act now?