“The just transition commission has been running for years. The commission has consumed more buffets at lunch time than they have created jobs. The jobs in the Scottish energy transition are all being done halfway round the world.”
Kate Forbes firmed up her support for oil and gas in the north-east as she insisted profits should be used to set up a special Norway-style wealth fund.
Most Scots want the government to avoid a rush to wind down oil and gas production, according to a poll which puts North Sea jobs at the centre of the SNP leadership debate.
Allies of Stephen Flynn, the man hotly tipped to succeed Ian Blackford as the SNP’s leader in Westminster, have said he would challenge the First Minister’s ‘crazy’ opposition to drilling new North Sea oil and gas fields.
A survey led by an SNP politician has found just one in 10 workers in the North Sea oil and gas industry say they have enough opportunities to switch to renewables.
Recent commodity volatility has made front-page news. As economies around the world emerge from two years of restrictions, demand is rebounding quickly, with consensus suggesting that consumption will outpace pre-pandemic levels by the end of the year.
The SNP has called for a broad-based windfall tax on ‘excess profits’ of major companies, including the energy sector, to help ease the cost of living crisis.
A former SNP energy secretary for Scotland has taken aim at "extreme" Scottish Green policies on the country's oil and gas production which he said will be required for "a much longer period."
With COP26 in Glasgow two months away, one might think Scottish political eyes would be turning towards the issues it will discuss, even if that means parking some other preoccupations for the time being. Not so.