Carney is failing in his duty to offer us stimulus and direction
THE Governor of the Bank of England comes north to the provinces and acclaims cost cutting as “impressive”, a base to move forward from (“Carney: No end in sight for North Sea oil gloom”, The Herald, September 28). On the same day Saudi Arabia announces a $334 billion dollar investment in Aramco by 2025.
Mr Carney had plenty to say regarding the referendum, but it would seem he is reticent now to offer an opinion on the current political moment or the Scottish economy in general. Stimulus and direction is what his position is supposed to offer, not obfuscation. He shows himself to be a true bureaucrat, offering us the babble of vapidity for the future. Jack Minnock, 9 Wallace Place, Falkirk. FOR at least the past 10 years I have been puzzled by the disconnect between the aspirations of the oil and gas industry and climate change amelioration policy; the disconnect appears again in two items in Tuesday’s issue: “Urgent call to end the plunge in North Sea investment” (The Herald, September 27) and “The hard truth on oil and gas sector” (Herald editorial, September 27).
Both items promote further major extraction from the North Sea with total disregard of the global agreement (Paris, December 2015) to reduce fossil fuel use. This agreement has recently been ratified by both China and the United States.
Please, will somebody explain the logic of this disconnect? Clive Brown, Otters, Ardfern, Argyll. THE charm offensive by bosses from fossil fuel giants Ineos will have done little to win over politicians concerned about the safety of fracking (“Ineos chief’s challenge: Visit US and see the success of fracking”, The Herald, September 28). Further still, it will have done nothing to alleviate the concerns of the growing number of communities, like those around the Falkirk area, opposed to onshore and near-shore unconventional oil and gas development.
The inability of the so-called Dragon ship to dock in Scotland because of high winds was a form of poetic justice that showed the magnificent wind energy potential in Scotland. Unfortunately, as well as shale gas, the ship also brought with it a renewed and deliberate campaign for fracking to be given the go ahead.
Now is the time to be investing in clean, renewable energy sources, not digging for more fossil fuels. It was reported that on one windy day last month, wind turbines covered all of our electricity needs and we already know that Scotland is “the undisputed world leader” in tidal energy.
We already have much more gas and oil than we can afford to burn if we are to avoid the most catastrophic impacts of global climate change and fracking comes with the added risk of leakage of methane. The truth is, we cannot say for certain that fracking is safe. As Jim Ratcliffe says himself, “however hard you try, things go wrong”.
The Scottish Government must legislate for an outright ban on fracking because its vague moratorium policy is clearly giving hope to fossil fuel giants intent on digging up Scotland. Mark Ruskell MSP, Scottish Greens climate, energy and environment spokesperson, The Scottish Parliament, Edinburgh. A SHIP emblazoned with the words “Shale Gas For Progress” unloads vital feedstock for Scotland’s petrochemical industry, proving the SNP’s own proclamations for progress and economic growth have been “transcended”, along with Brexit, oil and the economy, in the naked pursuit of independence. On January 28, 2016 as Fergus Ewing was announcing a fracking moratorium, Nicola Sturgeon was discussing the opportunity with Ineos management. It is widely believed in onshore exploration circles that the SNP is in favour of fracking.
What sickens me is the timidity, hypocrisy, arrogance and incompetence which kicks this can along the road. It kept the green lobby and the hugely misinformed onside and got the SNP through the Westminster and Holyrood elections. It may be enough to see it past the council elections. But it will come to a humiliating and economically suicidal dead end when England goes ahead with fracking and we Scots are left nursing gunshot wounds to our feet, fired by Nicola Sturgeon. Allan Sutherland, 1 Willow Row, Stonehaven.