Winds of change

First Minister, to make Scotland a “Saudia Arabia of the renewables industry”. The mistake made by Mr Salmond and his successor was failing to enhance the English interconnectors in line with the enhanced output of wind farms in Scotland.

Indeed, the steps taken to run cables to North Wales only resulted in a project that fails on a regular basis, yet it is the consumer and not the energy company that has to pay the cost. In other words, failure is rewarded with increased subsidies.

Note that the four-fold increase to charge electric vehicles, plus replacing gas as an energy source, will result in the bill for hundreds of millions of pounds in Constraint Payments escalating into hundreds of billions of pounds.

These costs will have to be paid by Scottish taxpayers if the advice of the CEO of Scottish Power is adopted by the Finance Secretary, but readers should note her silence.

The simple solution would be to postpone Indyref2 for 40 years to allow 92 per cent of the costs to be paid by English consumers, which means the 2021 election becomes a choice between Indyref2 with up to a decade of austerity, or voting to save the planet by retaining the Union and the UK grid.

It will be up to voters to decide at the polling booth as to which policy takes precedence whilst noting that it was the First Minister who claimed that Scots face a climate emergency.

IAN MOIR Queen Street, Castle Douglas

bioenergy would release more carbon than it saves. Why are our politicians so gullible? I wonder what Dr Dixon thinks of the situation at Drax power plant, which burns wood pellets shipped all the way from America and Canada?

Dr Dixon rightly criticises Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS), saying we can capture CO2 but we cannot store it. CCS tops the silly ideas to reduce man-made global warming. The idea is to capture CO2, compress it, pump it long distances and force it underground, hoping it will never escape. Where would it be buried? There is no natural vacuum anywhere on earth – every bit of space is occupied by solids, liquids or gases.

It is ironic that pumping in CO2, thus pumping out oil and gas, would give the space. Regulating atmospheric carbon dioxide is best left to the oceans and plants, something they have been doing successfully for

CLARK CROSS Springfield Road, Linlithgow

John Eoin Douglas (Letters, 17 March) needs to understand that the UK is a metric country and has been for some time. All UK science and technology uses the SI (International System) metric and children are all taught to use it.

Unfortunately, various governments have failed to consolidate the change and have allowed some Imperial units, like speed limits and distances, to persist.

One result is that broadcast weather forecasters continue to use miles per hour for wind speeds, even though the rest of their forecasts are in metric

Mr Douglas should acquaint himself with SI or at least know that a metre is just over a yard.

Being old-fashioned is not an excuse. I am 82.

STEUART CAMPBELL Dovecot Loan, Edinburgh