Tag: environment

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So, we’ve to pay more for electricity pylons and cables to ‘shift’ the ‘excess’ electricity we don’t need, over the border, because you will have produced 10 times what we need in our waters?

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Professor John Robertson OBA In BBC Scotland TV reports this morning and on their website, the above headline and a report based on an interview with Scottish Power Energy Networks‘ chief executive Nicola Connelly. Her thinking is entirely, but I think unconsciously, based on the unquestionable nature of the Union. It’s by no means propagandistic as she makes no case for the Union, just takes it for granted and so, for the discriminating reader, like you, it offers a shocking insight into just how exploitative and pointless that union is for Scotland. First: A £34bn investment in Scotland’s electricity network … Continue reading So, we’ve to pay more for electricity pylons and cables to ‘shift’ the ‘excess’ electricity we don’t need, over the border, because you will have produced 10 times what we need in our waters?

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New US law to compensate radiation emission victims needs to be introduced by UK Government for Essex breast cancer and Scottish child cancer cases

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From Spectrum News yesterday: A Detroit-area woman is among those hailing a new law that expands a federal trust fund that makes payments to those who may have been sickened by nuclear contamination. Kim Visintine, a local ER nurse practitioner, was raised in the St. Louis area with a career in the automotive industry that ultimately brought her to Michigan. In 2000, her son was born in St. Louis with a rare brain cancer, underwent neurosurgeries at just days old and later went on chemotherapy. He died in 2006. In the years that followed, Visintine learned of others who grew … Continue reading New US law to compensate radiation emission victims needs to be introduced by UK Government for Essex breast cancer and Scottish child cancer cases

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Michael Shanks – ‘[Scottish] Oil and gas has played a critical role in our energy story for the past 60 years. It will continue to play a critical role for decades to come’

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stewartb The recent session of the Scottish Affairs Committee of the Commons gained quite a few ‘insights’ from oral evidence given by Michael Shanks MP, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Minister for Energy) at the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) See transcript of the oral evidence at https://committees.parliament.uk/oralevidence/16235/pdf/ Shanks – ‘Oil and gas has played a critical role in our energy story for the past 60 years. It will continue to play a critical role for decades to come, …’ (my emphasis) Later, Committee Chair (Patricia Ferguson MP, Labour): ‘Do you think it is necessary to reduce North Sea oil and gas … Continue reading Michael Shanks – ‘[Scottish] Oil and gas has played a critical role in our energy story for the past 60 years. It will continue to play a critical role for decades to come’

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Supplying the UK with oil & gas from offshore Scotland or from imports? For the British Labour Party government there is “not a material difference” – apparently!

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By stewartb The head of trade body Offshore Energies UK (OEUK) was moved to write (July 4) in the specialist news website, Energy Voice in order to rebut a Westminster government minister’s evidence to the Scottish Affairs Committee of the Commons. The Committee was taking oral evidence from Michael Shanks MP, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Minister for Energy) at the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ). Source: Energy Voice, ’Let’s be clear about the value of the North Sea – Offshore Energies UK boss responds to minister’s claims there’s no difference between oil and gas imports and domestic … Continue reading Supplying the UK with oil & gas from offshore Scotland or from imports? For the British Labour Party government there is “not a material difference” – apparently!

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Renewable energy: should maximising electricity from offshore wind be a priority for Scotland in Union given surplus ‘exported’ to England is not a true export?

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By stewartb The headline question is of current relevance as the Scottish Government initiated a public consultation on June 13 (closing August 13) to inform the updating of policy on offshore wind energy. Here are the consultation questions: ‘1) Does “up to 40GW of new offshore wind by 2035-2040” demonstrate an appropriate level of ambition for the Scottish Government?’ ‘2) What additional actions do you believe should be taken by the Scottish Government, UK Government and agencies in order to realise the full potential of Scotland’s offshore wind sector?’ Source: Scottish Government (June 18, 2025) Offshore wind policy statement 2020 … Continue reading Renewable energy: should maximising electricity from offshore wind be a priority for Scotland in Union given surplus ‘exported’ to England is not a true export?

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Scotland’s free prescriptions and cleaner air saving lives of thousands of asthma sufferers and reducing GP visits as they surge in rUK

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Professor John Robertson OBA Headlining in the Guardian today, the above and: The number of patients being treated by GPs for asthma attacks has increased by 45% in a year, prompting calls for urgent action to tackle toxic levels of air pollution. There were 45,458 presentations to family doctors in England between January and June this year, according to data from the Royal College of General Practitioners research and surveillance centre. Across the same period in 2024, there were 31,376 cases. The figures come a week after a damning report by the Royal College of Physicians revealed that 99% of the UK population was now breathing … Continue reading Scotland’s free prescriptions and cleaner air saving lives of thousands of asthma sufferers and reducing GP visits as they surge in rUK

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Do Scots have little or no awareness of the scale of value of offshore oil and gas assets in the recent past or now?

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By stewartb I fear that a majority of the electorate in Scotland still have NO IDEA of – (perhaps even conditioned to have no interest in?) – Scotland’s indigenous energy assets and their potential significance for their own lives and those of their children and grandchildren. Little or no awareness of the scale of value of offshore oil & gas assets in the recent past (and still remaining) – Scotland’s great missed opportunity of a generation – and the developing renewable electricity generation assets, their current and realisable potential value – the about to be great missed opportunity of another … Continue reading Do Scots have little or no awareness of the scale of value of offshore oil and gas assets in the recent past or now?

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BBC Scotland’s Environment Correspondent misleads or misunderstands on the relative dangers of two greenhouse gases

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Professor John Robertson OBA Thanks to Bob Lamont for alerting me to this, today Up to 100 truckloads of Scotland’s waste will be moved each day to England once a landfill ban comes in at the end of the year, the BBC’s Disclosure has been told. The Scottish government is banning “black bag” waste from being buried in landfill from 31 December but acknowledges that there are not currently enough incinerators to meet the extra demand. Such biodegradable waste breaks down to produce methane, a greenhouse gas that is around 28 times more potent than carbon dioxide. You see what … Continue reading BBC Scotland’s Environment Correspondent misleads or misunderstands on the relative dangers of two greenhouse gases

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Do we need nuclear or Brian Wilson? Nope!

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Bob Lamont and Mills James on yesterday’s Sizewell C announcement millsjames1949 With estimates of (up to ) £40 billion as the ( building ) cost of this one Nuclear Station ( with several Small Nuclear stations to follow ) plus the higher cost of electricity to the consumers to access this power …imagine using this money for : a) proper insulation of existing housing stock to reduce energy consumption b) installing solar panels in existing housing stock to offset energy use from the Grid c) installing heat pumps in existing housing stock to reduce energy consumption …. I know , … Continue reading Do we need nuclear or Brian Wilson? Nope!

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To Margaret Curran’s boy – Scotland does not waste taxpayer money to monitor all of its nearly 4 000 water outflows because, unlike in England, almost all of them are not and have never been polluted – SIMPLE

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Professor John Robertson OBA Another ‘Scottish’ Labour MP, Chris Murray, son of a Labour member of the Lords, Margaret Curran, feeds an English Labour minister with lies about Scotland that can be used then to attack the SNP rather than the Labour-run councils actually responsible for any beach pollution or supposed lack of monitoring. First the supposed Portobello beach pollution, Murray reported last year: Pink diesel, 100% commented one reader. From a tractor raking the sand The actual facts on water company illegal sewage disposal: English water companies fined FOURTEEN THOUSAND times as much for illegal sewage discharges as those … Continue reading To Margaret Curran’s boy – Scotland does not waste taxpayer money to monitor all of its nearly 4 000 water outflows because, unlike in England, almost all of them are not and have never been polluted – SIMPLE