Rob Edwards

Forth coal gas plan postponed because of opposition

25 August 2015

The multi-millionaire oil tycoon, Algy Cluff, is delaying a planning application to gasify coal under the Firth of Forth in the face of mounting political opposition.

In a statement to shareholders, he discloses that “work on a planning application will likely be postponed until after such time as the political situation is more certain.” The application to pilot underground coal gasification (UCG) by test drilling off Kincardine in Fife was originally due to be made this autumn, but then was shifted to next year.

But now Cluff does not put a date on when the application might be, blaming “external factors”. These include, he says, “the on-going commission recently set up by the Scottish Government to review Scotland’s energy needs which is due to report in September 2015, a motion at the SNP Party Conference calling for the inclusion of UCG in its moratorium on onshore oil and gas and the Scottish Parliamentary Elections in May 2016.”

These moves all “have the ability to impact the development of the Kincardine project,” he says. “Accordingly we have deemed it prudent to await clarity on these matters before committing fully to, in particular, the expense of an environmental impact study.”

Cluff insists, however, that he is still committed to developing UCG in the Forth, and that work is continuing with regulators and the US oil giant, Halliburton, on technical aspects. “It remains our avowed intention to seek approval to install a pilot plant as soon as is practicable to generate limited production from the Firth of Forth before constructing Britain’s first UCG plant,” he says.

Diageo under fire for failing to meet targets to cut pollution

from Sunday Herald, 23 August 2015

Diageo, the £11 billion drinks giant and world-leading whisky producer, has admitted breaching seven out of eight of its environmental targets to cut pollution and waste.

The British multinational, responsible for at least 24 Scottish whisky brands including Johnny Walker, Bells, J&B, Talisker and Langavulin, failed to cut waste water contamination, climate emissions and landfill waste as it promised. The company, which made over £3 billion profit in 2014, also owns Guinness, Smirnoff, Baileys, and Captain Morgan.

One of Diageo’s most polluting plants - with some of the highest emissions of any industrial site in Scotland - is the Cameronbridge grain distillery at Leven in Fife. The plant’s carbon dioxide pollution has risen in recent years to a record high.

Environmentalists have attacked the company’s “shoddy” performance, alleging that it is damaging the clean image on which its whisky depends. Diageo argued, however, that its targets were “very stretching” and it had significantly reduced its environmental impact.

In 2008 Diageo set itself eight targets to achieve in 2015, aimed at significantly improving the environmental sustainability of its business. But its latest annual report reveals that it has only managed to meet one of them – improving water efficiency by 30 per cent.

Warning that tax break will boost contaminated soil dumping

from The National, 17 August 2015

The Scottish government’s green watchdog has been accused of supporting a tax break that will lead to hundreds of thousands of tonnes of contaminated soil being dumped at landfill sites.

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) has backed new guidance proposed by the tax agency, Revenue Scotland, which could make it much cheaper to dispose of soil that has been polluted by industry in the past.

Under the guidance, companies wanting to get rid of contaminated soil could pay £80 a tonne less tax to tip it into landfill sites. Industry experts fear that this will mean that less soil is cleaned up for use in building projects, putting specialised soil decontamination firms out of business.

Revenue Scotland is proposing new guidance on the landfill taxes imposed on firms disposing of soil. The option that is backed by Sepa would mean that firms return to the old “dig and dump” regime of the past, according to the Edinburgh soil cleaning company, Soilutions.

In a submission to Revenue Scotland’s consultation, published last week, the company’s managing director, John Curran, warned that the guidance would open up a tax loophole. “Waste tourism from south of the border is inevitable,” he said.

Coal gas contamination in Australia sparks fears of Scottish disaster

from The National, 17 August 2015

Revelations that an underground coal gas plant in Australia is facing prosecution for allegedly contaminating over 300 square kilometres of farmland have sparked fears that the same could happen in Scotland.

The Queensland government has launched a £3 million criminal court action accusing a mining company of leaking toxic chemicals and potentially explosive gases into the soil, water and air from a facility at Chinchilla, west of Brisbane. The charge sheet, seen by the Sunday Herald, says the contamination is “extensive and widespread” and that the harm caused is “irreversible”.

The technique of burning coal underground to extract gas for commercial use in Australia, known as underground coal gasification (UCG), is now planned for the Firth of Forth and the Solway Firth. Community and environmental campaigners fear it could be disastrous, and are stepping up their demands for UCG to be included in the Scottish Government’s fracking moratorium.

The companies proposing UCG in Scotland, however, say that their technologies will be different, deeper underground and safer. The Australian firm facing the contamination charges strongly denies them.

The Queensland government has imposed a 314 square kilometre “caution zone” around experimental UCG plants operated by Linc Energy in Chinchilla between 1999 and 2013. Digging below two metres is banned because of risks from explosions and pollution.

Pop-up protest planned against BP sponsorship of the Edinburgh Festival

from The National, 13 August 2015

The Edinburgh International Festival is to be targeted this weekend by a theatrical protest against sponsorship by the oil giant BP, blamed for climate pollution.

Environmentalists, fringe performers and arts sponsorship campaigners accuse the festival of “greenwashing” a company contributing to “catastrophic climate change” by accepting it as one of the festival’s headline partners.

They say they are planning a “pop-up performance protest” at an as yet undisclosed location in Edinburgh at noon on Sunday. They promise to “perform a piece of guerilla theatre, highlighting the festival's unethical choice of major sponsor.”

The organisers, an activist theatre group called ‘BP or not BP?’, have previously disrupted events sponsored by BP at the British Museum and the Tate gallery in London. In May they invaded the British Museum with a singing show in which wildlife were trapped in an oil slick of black umbrellas.

They have also brought Sherlock Holmes to the museum in search of “the world’s biggest corporate criminal”, and put BP on trial with a public flashmob. Last year they staged a surprise performance of an anti-oil version of Shakespeare’s Macbeth in a Tate Britain art exhibition funded and branded by BP.

Call from experts to back low-pollution homes

from The National, 11 August 2015

Experts from industry and universities are urging the First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, to reject UK government moves to abandon plans for zero carbon homes aimed at cutting waste and pollution.

Last month, the UK Chancellor George Osborne slipped out a surprise announcement that he was dropping a previous commitment that all new homes built from 2016 would meet zero carbon targets. His aim was to “reduce regulation” for builders, but it is likely to result in new houses with less insulation and more wasted energy.

Osborne’s move prompted a howl of protest from UK businesses. In a joint letter, they argued that the sudden policy U-turn would inhibit investment, be “regressive” and “harmful to British industry”.

Now 20 academics, business leaders and professionals have signed an open letter to Sturgeon urging her to take a very different approach. “Work with us to develop new policies to ensure the wide-ranging impacts of the disastrous decisions now being made at Westminster will not be felt by the people of Scotland,” the letter says. 

“Improving the condition and energy efficiency of the Scottish housing stock will be essential in meeting many of our environmental, social and economic objectives towards 2030 and 2050. Removing the current targets, or letting them slip further, will add to our legacy of sub-standard housing that is not fit for a world in which all homes will need to be zero carbon homes.”

Ministers move to ban GM crops to keep Scotland ‘clean and green’

from Sunday Herald, 9 August 2015

Scotland is planning to toughen its ban on growing genetically modified (GM) crops by formally opting out of the European Union’s pro-GM farming regime.

The Scottish Government will be applying to Brussels to be excluded from approvals for GM crops across Europe. Allowing GM would threaten the nation’s “clean and green brand” and be “gambling” with its £14 billion food industry, according to Environment Minister, Richard Lochhead.

His stance has been enthusiastically welcomed by food campaigners, though some urge him to go further. Farmers and the GM industry, however, have reacted with disappointment, criticising the minister for foreclosing future options.

New European Union rules earlier this year permit member states and devolved administrations to restrict or prohibit newly approved GM crops within their territories. Countries can also apply to be exempted from a GM maize that has already been approved and six other crops awaiting approval.

Lochhead announced today that the Scottish Government intends to submit a request that Scotland is excluded from all European consents for the cultivation of GM crops. Banning GM would help protect and enhance the reputation of Scotland’s beautiful natural environment, he said.

‘Hello, can you help me? Am I allowed to burn down my house?’

from Sunday Herald, 9 August 2015

My fridge is a biohazard, my bathwater has turned lurid green and I don’t know how to dispose of my false teeth. And am I allowed to burn down my house?

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) has revealed some of the more bizarre requests for help received recently by staff at its 24-hour emergency call centre at Holytown in North Lanarkshire.

The centre, which usually deals with floods, waste dumping, pollution and a host of other serious problems, occasionally has to cope with calls from people anxious about less earth-shattering matters. Staff have learnt to “expect the unexpected,” Sepa says.

Amongst the 73,000 phone calls the centre has taken in the last year, some have left trained operators bewildered. One worried caller asked if Sepa inspectors could come to his house to check for “airborne hazards” from a fridge, because everything inside had turned black while it had been switched off for three months.

A mother rang the emergency number, frantic because her bathwater had turned a lurid shade of green. It turned out that the woman’s teenage daughter had spiked a shampoo bottle with hair dye.

An elderly gentleman called up asking how he could safely dispose of an old pair of false teeth. A singing group asked if their annual party would have any environmental health implications, while one woman reported slugs in her kitchen.

National park under fire for ‘cover-up’ of shares in £200m gold mine

from Sunday Herald, 02 August 2015

The Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park authority has been accused of a “cover-up” over the resignation of one of its leading members for failing to declare shares in a £200 million gold mining company for more than two years.

Internal documents seen by the Sunday Herald reveal that Owen McKee resigned as vice-convener and chair of the planning committee in December. This followed his admission that he had bought more than half a million shares for close to £12,000 in Scotgold, an Australian company that is planning to dig for gold under a hill at Cononish near Tyndrum in the national park.

After “serious concern” from fellow board members about the “reputational risks” to the park, he decided to sell his shares hours before a meeting due to discuss arrangements for considering the gold mine. He remains a member of the park board and planning committee.

Board members were repeatedly warned to keep what had happened secret, and were not given the full report of an internal investigation into McKee’s shareholdings. “This matter is highly sensitive and confidential and is not in the public domain”, they were told by park convener, Linda McKay, in December.

Outdoor campaigners allege that the park authority deliberately tried to hide the reasons for McKee’s resignation from the public, and have lodged a complaint with the ethical standards watchdog. The authority is “not fit for purpose”, its leaders should be suspended and a government investigation launched, they say.