Rob Edwards

Coal gas link to US oil giant Halliburton under fire

from The National, 23 February 2015

A new partnership with controversial US oil giant, Halliburton, to exploit coal gas under the Firth of Forth has come under fierce fire from environmentalists and politicians. 

The company that’s leading efforts to develop underground coal gasification (UCG), Cluff Natural Resources, has signed a memorandum of understanding with Halliburton. This launches a new collaboration aimed at commercialising exploration licences covering large parts of the Firth of Forth, starting with an area off Kincardine. 

At the weekend an alliance of 30 community and environmental groups wrote to the Scottish Energy Minister, Fergus Ewing, demanding that UCG be included in the government’s fracking moratorium. They expressed “grave concern” that it had been omitted, and highlighted health and environmental dangers. 

Ewing announced a temporary moratorium on onshore fracking and coalbed methane developments on 28 January. But he specifically excluded offshore UCG, despite having powers to include it.

Cluff Natural Resources, founded by the multi-millionaire oil tycoon, Algy Cluff, has been in talks with Fife and Falkirk council officials in recent weeks and is intending to make planning applications for the Kincardine scheme later this year. It announced on 13 February that it had signed a memorandum of understanding with Halliburton.

Revealed: UK’s top Trident officials met three days before indyref

from Sunday Herald, 22 February 2015

Four of the UK government’s top Trident officials held a meeting to discuss “maritime programme shaping” just three days before the independence referendum on 18 September, according to the Ministry of Defence (MoD).

A list of meetings disclosed under freedom of information law also reveals that two days later on the eve of the referendum, one of the officials met with a senior policy advisor to Prime Minister David Cameron at Downing Street.

The revelations have been seized on by the Scottish National Party (SNP) as evidence that Westminster did consider the fate of the Trident nuclear weapons system in the event of a Yes vote – something that the MoD has always denied. SNP policy was to rid Scotland of Trident as soon as possible after independence.

The SNP’s interpretation has been backed by a leading academic and campaigners, but it is strongly disputed by the MoD. The meetings were “routine” and “not referendum related”, the MoD insisted.

The MoD has released a list of meetings attended by its chief of defence materiel, Bernard Gray, during 2014. On 15 September he met for an hour with three senior nuclear officials: Rear Admiral Mark Beverstock, director of chief strategic systems executive; Andrew Mackinder, strategic weapons head; and Rear Admiral Mike Wareham, submarines director.

Call for fracking moratorium to include undersea coal gas

from Sunday Herald, 22 February 2015

An alliance of communities across Scotland is demanding that the Scottish Government’s fracking moratorium be broadened to ban plans to ignite and gasify coal under the seabed around the coast. 

Nearly 30 campaign and environmental groups have this weekend written to the Energy Minister, Fergus Ewing MSP, asking for a halt to all underground coal gasification (UCG) developments because of the health and environmental risks. It is a “grave concern” that the technology has been omitted from the moratorium, they say.

Two private companies have advanced plans to gasify the coal that underlies large parts of the Firth of Forth and the Solway Firth. Between them they have five exploratory licences for the seabed off Kincardine, Musselburgh, Largo Bay, and in the middle of the two firths, plus an application pending for an area off Kirkcaldy. 

One company, Cluff Natural Resources, founded by the multi-millionaire oil tycoon, Algy Cluff, has been in talks with Fife and Falkirk council officials in recent weeks and is intending to make planning applications for a Kincardine scheme this year. The other, Five Quarter, is based in Newcastle and backed by an eight per cent investment from the UK’s largest private landowner, the Duke of Buccleuch.

Ewing announced a temporary moratorium on onshore fracking and coalbed methane developments on 28 January. But he specifically excluded offshore UCG from the ban, despite having powers to include it.

Exotic pets may be restricted after government review

from Sunday Herald, 15 February 2015

The keeping of exotic pets like snakes, lizards, crocodiles, monkeys and meerkats could be restricted in the wake of a major review of the international pet trade to be launched by the Scottish Government.

The Environment Minister, Richard Lochhead MSP, is announcing the review today (Sunday) after animal welfare groups highlighted the poor conditions in which such pets can be bred and kept - and the health and environmental risks they pose.

More than 1,000 species of mammals, birds, insects and reptiles, plus hundreds of types of fish, are now traded as pets. The trend for keeping ever-more bizarre animals at home has been boosted by an explosion of online sellers, and by media-inspired fads.

Raccoons, possums, iguanas, chameleons, pythons, boas, pygmy hedgehogs, turtles and many others are on sale on the internet. In Scotland, a series of unusual animals have recently been found abandoned by their owners, including bearded dragons, a Chinese water dragon, corn snakes, terrapins and a six-foot boa constrictor.

Animal campaigners want to limit the number of species that can be kept as pets by introducing a “positive list”, as has been done in Belgium and the Netherlands. But this is fiercely opposed by exotic pet traders, who’ve launched a ‘hands off my hobby’ counter-campaign.

Scottish Water under fire for 51 pollution offences

from Sunday Herald, 15 February 2015

Scottish Water has been branded as one of Scotland’s biggest polluters after government figures revealed that it has been guilty of 51 pollution offences in the last ten years.

The public water company has been fined more than £240,000 for 47 spills, leaks and discharges between 2005 and 2014. It has been formally admonished by courts for four further incidents.

Recent offences include chlorine discharges that killed over 1,000 young trout and salmon in the Alva Burn near Alloa, sewage contamination of the River Kelvin in Kirkintilloch, and leaks of over 10,000 litres of lethal sulphuric acid into the River Devon in Clackmannanshire.

The average fine paid by Scottish Water over the ten years was £4,700, with fines for 28 of the pollution breaches below that. The company, which is owned by the Scottish Government, turns over £1 billion a year.

The relatively low level of the fines has prompted concerns that they are failing to deter Scottish Water from making blunders that annihilate wildlife. One environmental group is now calling for the company’s senior managers to be made personally liable for pollution.

£4.2bn: the bill for replacing Trident before parliament gives go-ahead

from Sunday Herald, 08 February 2015

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) is planning to spend £4.2 billion on replacing the Trident nuclear weapons system before the UK parliament has given it the go-ahead, according to a report from the government’s National Audit Office (NAO).

The money is being spent on designing new submarines, reactors and missile compartments ahead of a long-promised decision on Trident replacement by MPs in 2016, after this year’s UK general election. Previous reports have suggested that around £2bn or £3bn would be incurred before the decision was taken.

Opposition politicians and campaigners have condemned the MoD for pre-empting a democratic decision on whether or not the UK should continue to rely on weapons of mass destruction. The MoD says it has always been transparent about the costs “whilst protecting our commercial position”. 

The NAO report also reveals that the MoD has underestimated the cost of upgrading the nuclear reactors that power Trident submarines by £151 million. This was because it had to master 40 new manufacturing techniques while coping with an acute shortage of nuclear engineers.

The revelations raised very serious questions for the MoD, warned the SNP Westminster leader and defence spokesman, Angus Robertson MP. “Costs are spiraling out of control before MPs have even had a chance to vote on renewal,” he told the Sunday Herald.

Investing in fossil fuels is unethical, say doctors

from Sunday Herald, 08 February 2015

Pressure is mounting on investors to pull the billions of pounds they pour into fossil fuel firms because of dangers to human health and the environment.

In a new report, doctors are calling for investments in coal, oil and gas companies to be withdrawn. They blame the industry for air pollution that is killing over 2,000 people a year in Scotland.

According to campaigners, over 180 institutions around the world, including city councils, universities and churches, have committed to ending £30 billion of fossil fuel investments. Protests are planned this week in Scotland and other countries to help persuade more investors to join them.

Last week the Norwegian government’s £556 billion pension fund disclosed that it had withdrawn investments from 114 coal, tar sands and other companies because of environmental concerns. Founded on revenues from North Sea oil and gas, it is the largest sovereign wealth fund in the world.

Last October the University of Glasgow decided to immediately freeze and then phase out fossil fuel investments over the next 10 years. The university’s governing court is due to receive a report on the financial impact of its move at a meeting later this month.

Undersea coal gas: a ‘gaping loophole’ in the government’s fracking ban

from Sunday Herald, 01 February 2015

The Scottish government’s much-lauded fracking moratorium will allow highly controversial plans to exploit coal gas under the seabed near Scotland’s coast to go ahead – despite ministers having powers to block the developments. 

Ministers are now facing mounting pressure to close what is seen as a “gaping loophole” in the temporary ban imposed on new gas technologies last week. The ban covers fracking for shale gas in the central belt and mining for coalbed methane at Falkirk and Canonbie, but it excludes the related and equally disputed technology known as underground coal gasification (UCG).

Two private companies have advanced plans to gasify the coal that underlies large parts of the Firth of Forth and the Solway Firth. Between them they have five exploratory licences for the seabed off Musselburgh, Kincardine, Largo Bay, and in the middle of the two firths, plus an application pending for an area off Kirkcaldy (see table below).

One company, Cluff Natural Resources, founded by the multi-millionaire oil tycoon, Algy Cluff, is sending a consultant to have talks with Fife Council planners this week. The other, Five Quarter, is based in Newcastle and backed by an eight per cent investment from the UK’s largest private landowner, the Duke of Buccleuch.

When the Energy Minister, Fergus Ewing MSP, announced the moratorium in the Scottish Parliament on Wednesday, he said that the Scottish government only had powers over onshore activities. “They do not apply to offshore activities such as those that I believe would be covered by UCG,” he told MSPs.

But the government’s Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) told the Sunday Herald that it would have to issue licences for UCG under at last two pollution control regimes. “It is likely that The Water Environment (Controlled Activities) (Scotland) Regulation and Pollution Prevention and Control (Scotland) Regulation 2012, amongst others, will apply,” said Sepa’s head of operations, Lin Bunten.

TTIP: the ugly acronym that mobilised a mass movement

from Sunday Herald, 01 February 2015

It’s not a pretty word, nor an easy idea to grasp. But it has inspired thousands from Scotland and elsewhere to get on their feet and protest. 

This week a trainload of protestors will be heading for Brussels to raise their voices against TTIP – the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership – which is beginning its crucial next round of negotiations. It’s a big business deal between the European Union and the United States that will determine how goods are traded across the world.

According to the protestors, it will do great harm. It will hand multinational corporations unprecedented powers to trash the environment, privatise public services and undermine democratic rights, they warn. 

TTIP will reduce barriers to free trade, which companies say will bring economic benefits. But the organisers of this week’s protest, Global Justice Now, formerly the World Development Movement, argue it will threaten people and the planet.

TTIP will make it easier for multinationals to sue governments, and could lead to environmental and safety standards being slashed, they say. It could be used to privatise the National Health Service, and will shift the balance of power in favour of the rich and against the poor, they argue.