Today I managed to catch up with Friends of the Earth Scotland who had set up their "Nuclear White Elephant" in Edinburgh. They were out campaigning against the creation of a new generation of nuclear power stations, and I have to say I totally agree with them. And not only do I agree with them, but so do the people of Cumbernauld and Kilsyth according to our survey returns.
As I have mentioned before on the blog we have been busily delivering surveys across the constituency and one of the questions we have asked is whether or not people believe that new nuclear power stations should be constructed. And they have delivered a resounding no to such a suggestion. 66.3% of those who responded were against with a mere 14.2% for (the remaining 19.5% said that they don't know).
I'm with them on this one. Nuclear power is hugely expensive and leaves us with radioactive waste that will pollute for hundreds of years to come. It is also unnecessary given that in Scotland we produce more power than we consume.
Far from building new nuclear power stations we should be investing in Scotland's renewable energy potential. The power of wind, wave and the Sun (no jokes about the power from the latter being negligible in Scotland please!) should be harnessed.
We have the potential to be world leaders in green sources of energy. For the benefit of our environment we should take it as well as the benefits to our economy this can bring.
3 comments:
So tell me, how exactly do you plan to bridge the energy gap created by not replacing the nuclear power stations that are going off-line, or do you intend that we sit in the dark.
Renewables just does not cut it.
Amy, who is clearly a hater of natural hillsides said: "Even the current renewables technology would in fact remove the supposed "gap" that would materialise post fossil fuel *provided* there was sufficient investment"
You're not expecting any growth in power usage then? The energy gap is simple maths, not a myth.
If 80% of our current energy comes from fossil fuels (Source: RSE Inquiry into Energy Issues for Scotland, 2006) and our major plant is going off-line in the next 25 years... And that coal, oil, gas and nuclear provide cheaper electricity than renewables... Do I have to spell it out that nuclear is the way to go? Given that for wind to only provide 20% of the nations power, we'd need a (subsidised) wind farm of 600 square kilometres, which is hardly "environmentally friendly".
It's all very well and good continuing to invest in renewables, but we need to be building power generation stations now, and those would be nuclear, if you don't want to rely on fossil fuels. It's the ONLY choice.
As far as the Beauly-Denny interconnect goes - these people lost the right to complain about the transmission towers as soon as they approved a wind farm on Sheriffmuir.
Post a Comment