RACHEL Reeves has been accused of snubbing the Acorn carbon capture project in north east Scotland as she set out green priorities in her speech at Labour conference.
Speaking of progress the UK Government wished to make in the coming years, the Chancellor failed to mention the project based at St Fergus near Peterhead as she spoke to delegates in Liverpool.
The Alba Party have accused Labour of a “betrayal in waiting” following the apparent snub, given a lengthy history of the UK Government ditching plans for carbon capture projects.
The project is working with industrial, power, hydrogen, bioenergy and waste-to-energy businesses, including those in Peterhead, Grangemouth, and Mossmorran in Fife which wish to capture CO2 emissions and send them into permanent geological storage under the North Sea.
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The UK Government confirmed the project would progress to its “track two” stage last year, but SNP Westminster leader stressed in July there was a major lack of certainty over the timeline.
Speaking of projects she wished to progress, Reeves said in her speech: "Jobs in the automotive sector of the future in the industrial heartland of the West Midlands, jobs in life sciences across the north-west, clean technology across South Yorkshire, a thriving gaming industry in Dundee, and jobs in carbon capture and storage on Teesside, Humberside and right here on Merseyside too."
Former first minister and Alba leader Alex Salmond (below) said Scots should be “extremely concerned” at Reeves’s failure to mention Acorn and called on the UK Government to urgently confirm its position on the project.
He said: “In the last 17 years, successive Labour then Tory governments have committed to carbon capture projects in the North East of Scotland and then reneged on these commitments.
“They have promised support and then rolled back on Scottish carbon capture proposals since the Miller project at Peterhead in 2007.
“Given that track record of betrayal, we should be extremely concerned at the Chancellor’s decision to snub the Acorn project in her speech. The UK Government must urgently confirm if Scotland is set to miss out yet again due to a UK Government decision.
“Since 2007, £80 billion has flowed in oil revenues from Scotland to the London Treasury. If a bare fraction of that had been invested in carbon capture then Scotland would right now be leading the world in planet saving technology and advancing into the hydrogen economy.
“Thus we need the cash for Acorn offered immediately and scaled up.”
Salmond insisted it should be made a “constant requirement” of all new oil and gas projects to have a carbon capture commitment.
In 2007, Salmond accused the UK Government of dealing “a near fatal blow” to plans for a £500 million green energy plant at Peterhead.
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BP withdrew its investment in the project, with government funding delays being blamed for the company’s decision. The UK Government subsequently told Salmond the proposals “could not be revisited”.
In 2011, plans for the UK’s first carbon capture project at the Longannet power station in Fife were scrapped.
In 2015, David Cameron insisted scrapping the £1bn carbon capture and storage fund, which aimed to develop technology in power stations, was the “right choice”. The SNP at the time claimed he had betrayed “the entire planet”.
After the General Election, the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero said carbon capture is key to the Government’s plans to make the UK a “clean energy superpower” and £1bn had been committed to its deployment.
The Scottish Government awarded £2m to the Acorn project in July, which will be used to explore how a pipeline could transport carbon dioxide from Scotland’s central belt to the North East.
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