Rob Edwards

How an oil tycoon lobbied Scottish ministers on coal gas

from The Ferret, 28 July 2015

Scottish ministers were privately warned by a multi-millionaire oil tycoon that Scotland would lose £250 million worth of investment if they blocked plans to extract coal gas from under the Firth of Forth, reports The Ferret.

In a letter to the planning minister, Alex Neil, and the energy minister, Fergus Ewing veteran entrepreneur Algy Cluff said that including his plans for underground coal gasification (UCG) in the fracking moratorium would have a “potentially devastating” impact on his company’s “ability to operate and invest further in Scotland”.

A week later later Neil replied, reassuring Cluff that “the moratorium does not apply to the offshore underground gasification of coal”. But Cluff’s comments have now prompted a prominent SNP politician to call for the moratorium to be extended to include UCG.

Tommy Sheppard, the MP for Edinburgh East, said that UCG was “more problematic than fracking because it has a greater risk of underground explosions.” Cluff’s letter was “likely to be counter-productive”, he told The Ferret.

Sheppard added: “The Scottish Government’s moratorium applies to planning applications for unconventional gas extraction. By any measure UCG is unconventional. I would therefore have thought that if Cluff makes an application for land-based facilities to drill for coal gas under the Firth of Forth, he should be refused.”

The Ferret, a new not-for-profit platform for investigative journalism, has recently published stories about the CCTV network in crisis, the Srebrenica massacre and suicide bombers in Pakistan. Read more here. Contribute to The Ferret's crowdfunding campaign, which ends on 10 August 2015, here.

Drinking water contamination incidents double in a year

from Sunday Herald, 26 July 2015

Scottish Water has come under attack from a government safety watchdog because the number of contamination problems and incidents doubled across the drinking water network in a year.

There had been a “deterioration throughout the water supply system” on bacterial quality, according to the regulator, Sue Petch. She has also launched legal enforcement action because of an “unacceptable” level of faecal parasites and a “very disappointing” number of incidents at one water treatment works in Aberdeenshire.

Petch, the Drinking Water Quality Regulator, has released her report for 2014. It reveals there were 53 incidents across Scotland rated as significant, serious and major, some of them contaminating drinking water delivered to hundreds of consumers.

Her report does not include the major incident last month when more than 6,000 residents in North Lanarkshire were left without tap water for two days because of contamination by an “oily-based substance”. The cause of the incident is still being investigated.

Petch points out that water quality standards for coliform bacteria, used as an indicator of contamination, were breached 40 times in 2014, compared to 17 times in 2013. “I am disappointed to have to report this position and have requested that Scottish Water examine disinfection processes, in detail, at all of its treatment works,” she says.

Rare bee discovered in path of Cairngorm housing scheme

from Sunday Herald, 26 July 2015

Wildlife experts have discovered a rare and unique bee in an ancient Cairngorm woodland destined to be turned into a housing estate.

A pinewood mason bee has been recorded and photographed on the site of a planned development at Rothiemurchus near Aviemore in the Cairngorm National Park. Known as An Camas Mòr and envisaging a 1,500-house new town, the scheme has long been opposed by conservationists.

The ginger and black bee (Osmia uncinata) can only be found in a few parts of the highlands, as it favours sunshine, Scots pine trees and one particular flower, bird’s foot trefoil. It is a solitary bee without a hive, and burrows in holes left in old trees by longhorn beetles.

It was found earlier this month by Dr Gus Jones, convener of the Badenoch and Strathspey Conservation Group. “This find again shows that the An Camas Mòr area in the heart of the Cairngorms National Park has precious wildlife,” he says.

“To pretend options exist for construction of a new town here that are sustainable and leave natural heritage interests unscathed is to ignore ecological understanding of this special area.”

Ineos accused of planning to breach fracking moratorium

from Sunday Herald, 19 July 2015

The petrochemical giant, Ineos, is being accused of planning to flout the Scottish Government’s fracking moratorium by test drilling for shale gas in central Scotland.

The company has revealed that it is going to apply for planning permission to sink four or five wells to find out how much gas is trapped in underground rocks. This will not involve hydraulic fracturing, it says, and will be consistent with the government’s desire for further research.

But community and environmental groups angrily insist that test drilling would breach the moratorium and destroy public trust. They are demanding that ministers block Ineos’s applications.

A temporary moratorium on “the granting of planning consents for all unconventional oil and gas developments, including fracking” was announced by the Energy Minister, Fergus Ewing in January. He ordered local authorities and regulators not to permit developments while health risks were investigated and a public consultation was held.

The timescale for the investigation and consultation have yet to be announced, and they are now expected to extend beyond the Scottish election in May 2016. But Ineos has indicated that it wants to start test drilling and seismic testing for shale gas soon.

Anti-litter group under fire for backing packaging industry on drinks containers

from Sunday Herald, 19 July 2015

The anti-litter charity, Keep Scotland Beautiful (KSB), has been accused of being a “creature” of the corporate packaging industry after it came out against a Scottish government plan to cut litter by charging deposits on drinks containers.

Most environmental groups support the introduction of a deposit scheme because they think it would cut waste by encouraging bottles, cans and cartons to be returned and recycled. But KSB says it is a bad idea - echoing the views of big drinks firms, supermarkets and the packaging industry, with which it has developed close ties.

The Scottish Environment Minister, Richard Lochhead, launched an investigation into the feasibility of a deposit scheme for Scotland after he saw how effective it was in reducing litter in Sweden. In May, he called for evidence from industry and others, after publishing a report highlighting the benefits of 10p or 20p deposits on drinks containers.

Deposits would encourage people to return containers and get their money back, the minister argued. Like charging for plastic carrier bags, a deposit scheme “has the potential to be very beneficial for the environment”, he said.

Leading environmental groups agree that a deposit scheme would reduce litter and boost recycling. But the scheme has been rejected by drink, retail and packaging companies because of the difficulties they will have collecting and returning containers.

Row over Duke of Buccleuch’s £20 charge for walking your dog in his park

from Sunday Herald, 12 July 2015

The Duke of Buccleuch has been accused of breaking Scotland’s ‘right to roam’ law by trying to make people pay to take walks on his 1,000-acre estate near Edinburgh.

The UK’s largest private landowner is charging dog walkers £20 for an “annual pass” and demanding £1 from ramblers and cyclists when they visit Dalkeith Country Park. He is also installing CCTV, electric controls on the main gate, and local people claim he is attempting to restrict access at other entrances. 

The duke’s moves have infuriated residents, ramblers and politicians who argue that local people have been walking in the park for free for decades. Some claimed the charges are “extortionate” and “totally unreasonable”, with some walkers refuse to pay them.

But the Buccleuch estate said it is “mystified” by “misleading” suggestions that it is trying to restrict access. New security measures were being introduced to prevent anti-social behaviour and the killing of deer but these should not deter walkers, it said.

Dalkeith Country Park is one of Buccleuch’s five major country estates, four of them in Scotland and one in England, covering a total of over 240,000 acres. It is the site of Dalkeith Palace, built in 1702 and used by Bonnie Prince Charlie during the Jacobite Rebellion in 1745.

Ministers ordered to name the salmon farms that shoot seals

from The National, 8 July 2015

The Scottish Government has lost a long-running battle to keep the names of fish farms that shoot seals secret.

In two rulings yesterday, the Scottish Information Commissioner, Rosemary Agnew, ordered ministers to identify the individual farms responsible for killing 185 seals in 2013 and 2014. She dismissed the government’s argument that this could put staff and their families at risk from protestors.

Her decision was welcomed as a “landmark victory” by environmental campaigners, who are urging the public to boycott salmon from seal-shooting farms. The salmon farming industry stressed, however, that shooting was “always a last resort”.

Salmon farmers, river fisheries and salmon netters are licenced to shoot seals to prevent them eating fish. Over the four years to 2014, they shot a total of 1,371 grey and harbour seals, according to figures from the Scottish Government.

For the last two years the Montrose-based salmon netting company, Usan Salmon Fisheries, has been targeted by animal right activists trying to prevent seals from being killed. Our sister paper, the Sunday Herald, revealed last month that police had sent three reports to the procurator fiscal accusing both sides of breaking the law.

Whales and wildlife ‘under threat’ if Highland animal lab closes

from The National, 6 July 2015

Whales, wildlife and farm animals across a large swath of northern Scotland could all suffer if a veterinary health laboratory funded by the Scottish Government is forced to close, campaigners have warned. 

Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC) is planning to save £400,000 a year by closing the animal disease surveillance centre in Inverness. Across the Highlands, the centre looks after the health of agricultural livestock, helps investigate wildlife crime like the poisoning of birds of prey, and leads work on the hundreds of whales, dolphins and seals stranded and killed around Scotland’s shores. 

SRUC has launched a consultation proposing that the Inverness centre’s work should be taken over by laboratories in Thurso, Aberdeen and Perth. The consultation is due to close this week, and then go to the Scottish Government for a decision. 

Local politicians, farmers and vets have all protested against the proposed closure. But they have now been joined by environmental groups, alarmed at the implications for wildlife.

“The loss of the animal disease centre in Inverness will be a huge blow to the research being done to help save marine mammals,” said Alan Knight, chair of British Divers Marine Life Rescue.

“I have worked with the team at the Scottish marine animals stranding scheme for many years and we have changed our rescue protocols as a direct result of their research. To close the centre with no thought being given to where the scheme will be housed is beyond belief.”

Legal challenge on Israel’s nuclear policy

from Sunday Herald, 5 July 2015

Disarmament campaigners have launched a legal challenge to Israel’s secretive nuclear agency, demanding that it be given democratic authorisation.

The Israeli Disarmament Movement has written to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu requesting that he legislate for the existence of the Israeli Atomic Energy Commission. Set up behind the scenes in 1952 to manage Israel’s nuclear activities, the commission has never been affirmed in law, campaigners say.

The commission runs two research reactors in Soreq and in the Negev desert, and says it helps develop nuclear energy for civil purposes. But it is widely suspected of also being involved in nuclear weapons development.

Israel maintains a deliberate policy of “nuclear ambiguity” and has never confirmed that it has nuclear weapons. But US experts have estimated it could have as many as 80 nuclear warheads.

Bhopal: the long flight from justice

from Hesamag, July 2015

On a hot and hectic street in the Indian city of Bhopal, the flames licked up the two giant corporate logos. The blue of Union Carbide and the red of Dow Chemical Company, with added skulls, were incinerated to nothingness within seconds. 

Just a few metres away, across a high security wall, was the cause of the angry effigy-burning: the derelict and overgrown pesticide factory that leaked toxic gas 30 years ago and has killed more than 25,000 people.

The disaster at Union Carbide’s chemical works in Bhopal, in the crowded, poverty-stricken heart of India, on the 3 December 1984 was one of the world’s worst industrial accidents. It has since become one of the world’s grossest examples of environmental injustice.

Union Carbide and the US chemical giant that took it over in 2001, Dow, are fugitives from justice. Over the decades, they have repeatedly refused to appear before Indian courts to answer criminal charges against them. They have never apologised.

It is no wonder that they were targets for the fierce and passionate mass protests that took place in Bhopal on the 30th anniversary of the disaster in December 2014. “These days a corporation’s image is everything so we wanted to hit them where it hurt most,” said leading Bhopal campaigner, Sathyu Sarangi.