Iain Macwhirter Iain Macwhirter

Will the SNP come to its senses on North Sea oil?

Scotland's government appears to be finally recognising the cost of Net Zero (Getty images)

Drill, baby drill. The mood on Net Zero is changing in the Scottish parliament where a majority of MSPs have signed a petition calling for a reversal on the ban on new oil and gas licenses in the North Sea. This sea change in attitudes to the black stuff, if you’ll excuse the pun, could portend a dramatic reversal of the Scottish government’s opposition to fossil fuels in SNP leader John Swinney’s long-delayed energy strategy. The “presumption against offshore drilling” has been the centrepiece of SNP energy policy since Cop26 in 2021, when Nicola Sturgeon posed for selfies with Greta Thunberg. Sturgeon is gone, of course – and her clean energy obsession could soon be following her out the door.

The recent “dunkelflaute”, as the Germans call cloudy, windless weather, has energised Net Zero critics

The recent “dunkelflaute”, as the Germans call cloudy, windless weather, has energised critics of Net Zero Secretary Ed Miliband’s dash to decarbonise the electricity grid by 2030.

Written by
Iain Macwhirter

Iain Macwhirter is a former BBC TV presenter and was political commentator for The Herald between 1999 and 2022. He is an author of Road to Referendum and Disunited Kingdom: How Westminster Won a Referendum but Lost Scotland.

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