FLARING at a Scottish gas plant released enough carbon dioxide to fly more than 9000 people to New York and back, figures show.
The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) believes ExxonMobil’s plant at Mossmorran in Fife could have released up to 13,800 tonnes of the greenhouse gas into the atmosphere during a three-day period of flaring last month. The total is the equivalent to the carbon footprint of return Glasgow-New York flights for up to 9140 people.
Scottish Greens MSP for Fife Mark Ruskell has today renewed calls for a transition plan for the plant, saying: “Flaring is distressing and highly disruptive for local residents every time this fossil fuel relic suffers a breakdown, but these figures also now show the catastrophic long-term impacts this is having on our environment.
“Scotland has a legally binding target to achieve net-zero emissions by 2045, so it’s baffling to find out this much carbon is regularly being burned off into out atmosphere with very little consequence for the operators.”
ExxonMobil said it is “committed to minimising CO2 emissions” and pays for these under the EU Emissions Trading Scheme.
It went on: “ExxonMobil is pursuing technologies to enhance existing operations and develop alternative energies with a lower carbon intensity.”
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