Greens oppose UK backtracking on ship-to-ship oil transfer

Robin Harper MSP has today strongly criticised a group of MPs at Westminster for attempting to overturn regulations on ship-to-ship oil transfers, such as those proposed for the Firth of Forth, and has lodged a motion at Holyrood pressing UK Ministers to retain the rules. A similar motion has been lodged at Westminster by Labour MP Mark Lazarowicz. The Green MSPs are also urging the shipping industry to put an end to their lobbying on this issue.

In the April washup Westminster passed regulations to restrict these transfers, following the introduction of similar regulations in Scotland as part of an agreement made between the Green MSPs and the Scottish Government in 2007. The UK moves therefore completed the framework Greens say is necessary to protect this country's coastline from spills associated with irresponsible ship-to-ship oil transfers.

Robin Harper MSP said:

"The regulations passed by Westminster in April to restrict ship-to-ship oil transfers are a crucial piece of the jigsaw, and they are essential if this country is to meet its international legal obligations to protect the environment. We have long campaigned for better regulation and proper control over ship-to-ship transfers. Such operations carry a huge and unacceptable risk, and are a tactic the companies only use to save themselves a day or two of transit time.

"Now, just as those regulations are finally delivered, it's disturbing to see Lib Dem and Tory MPs encouraging Ministers to backtrack, especially when the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico shows how high the price can be when corners are cut by the oil industry. These MPs have a lot of explaining to do: do they really think a day's less travel and a slice more profit for the industry is worth jeopardising our coastal environment and the livelihoods of coastal communities?

"I would urge MSPs of all parties at Holyrood to sign this motion to demonstrate clear support for these crucial safeguards, and I would urge MPs of all parties at Westminster to support Mark Lazarowicz's similar motion there. I will also be writing to Scottish Ministers and urging them to make representations to Westminster in the strongest possible terms."

The motion lodged by Robin Harper MSP reads as follows:

S3M-06662 Ship-to-Ship Transfer
Robin Harper (Lothians) (Green): That the Parliament welcomes the Merchant Shipping (Ship-to-Ship Transfers) Regulations 2010 laid before the UK Parliament in April 2010; warmly welcomes the completion of a regulatory framework for transfers building on measures taken by the Scottish Parliament in response to proposals for cargo transfers in the Firth of Forth that were supported by all parties; supports the principle that transfer operations should be permitted only in harbours that have been licensed by ministers as safe; believes that the new regulations are necessary in order to meet the requirements of international environmental law; is concerned at lobbying by the shipping industry to annul these regulations, and urges UK ministers to ignore these efforts in favour of defending our coastal environment and communities.

TORY/LIB BUDGET AN IDEOLOGICAL SLASH AND BURN EXERCISE

For immediate release 22 June 2010

Greens today argued that George Osborne's first Budget is an act of ideological vandalism from the right-wing alliance of the Tories and Lib Dems, with political cover provided by Labour's failures, and that Scotland will pay a significant and unnecessary price. The party believes that, the UK-wide deficit could be reduced entirely by a more progressive taxation system and a clampdown on tax loopholes and tax avoidance.

Patrick Harvie MSP said:

"The pre-Budget spin has tried to persuade people that subjecting public services to an ideological slash and burn exercise will somehow help the country. Quite the opposite: today's catalogue of shame includes further privatisation of rail services and the Royal Mail, proposals that undermine the country's long-term future. Those in most need face benefit cuts, while business will see their taxes fall. The risk of a second recession has grown today, even as the Chancellor redistributes massive amounts of wealth from the poorest to the richest.

"Cuts were not inevitable, nor were they necessary. Greens believe the gap could be plugged with fair progressive taxation and by tackling the £100bn lost to tax avoidance and loopholes. Instead, what we're seeing is the reckless and selfish agenda of the UK's nasty parties - the LibDems and Tories in power are already proving to be a toxic mix.

"In the Lib Dems the Tories have found their perfect 'useful idiots', political soul-mates prepared to help Tory Ministers lay waste to the public sector and squeeze the poorest. Ordinary Scots will pay the price of this fiscal rampage, through the VAT hike, through rising unemployment and frozen benefits, and through significant cuts on public services. The pressure will now be on Scottish Ministers to use their next Budget to protect our economy and protect the poorest, a task made much harder today but one on which they will be judged above all next year.

"This is a classic Tory help-your-rich-mates budget, going directly against the measures the Lib Dems pledged to deliver. The public will suffer, especially the poorest, no question about it, but the Tories and the Lib Dems will pay the electoral price here in Scotland."

SNP vanity projects a major threat to Glasgow Subway

For immediate release 17 June 2010

Speaking ahead of a debate on Glasgow's Subway tonight at Holyrood (on motion S3M-6195), Green MSP for Glasgow Patrick Harvie heavily criticised SNP transport policy and its impact on Glasgow's public transport projects.

Patrick Harvie MSP said:

"Glasgow's Subway is much loved and much relied upon, but it's also desperately in need of investment in stations and rolling stock. Beyond that there are also opportunities to extend services and even consider expanding the network, opportunities Ministers should at least look at.

"Unfortunately, the SNP have a roads-first transport policy, and Glasgow's paying a heavy price for that. Ministers are blowing hundreds of millions on the M74 Northern Extension despite all the evidence that it will fail to meet any of their objectives, while their plans for an unnecessary and deeply unpopular additional Forth road bridge will squeeze out funding for public transport projects not just in Glasgow but across Scotland.

"Stewart Stevenson's extraordinary wastefulness on these other schemes is a major threat to the current investment plan for the Subway. Ministers must now reassure Parliament and the people of Glasgow that this investment programme won't go the way of the Glasgow Airport Rail Link."

Scottish Ministers have zero ambition on waste

For immediate release 9 June 2010

Greens criticised the Scottish Government's new waste strategy, published today, for failing to deliver any ambition to go beyond the minimum requirements set by the European Union. Eleven years into devolution and Ministers admit they do not have the information they need on current waste levels, nor does this document actually set a target for zero waste. The only headline target the Minister commits to in the document is for 70% of Scotland's waste to be recycled by 2025, with 5% going to landfill by the same date. The objective, Greens argue, should be to set an actual zero waste target and to reduce overall volumes of waste rather than to recycle a higher proportion of a Scotland's waste mountain and send more to incineration, as the SNP propose.

Robin Harper MSP said:

"The Scottish Government's zero waste plan attempts to say and do more of the right things on waste reduction, but many of its new targets are simply set by the EU and the Government is simply going through the motions. Following the decision to overturn Highland Council's rejection of the Invergordon incinerator, it's clear the SNP Government's approach is to bury or burn our waste. They are moving slowly from landfilling to creating a stream of waste to be incinerated. The previous 25% cap on waste going to incineration - something Ministers appear to have seen as a target - was bad enough, but it's been simply removed in favour of some even less restrictive conditions.

"Mass burn incineration, permitted under this plan, cannot ever be a clean technology. It's truly just landfill in the sky, even when it gets rebadged as so-called energy from waste. It's also bad for the economy: recycling creates six times more jobs with the same waste than landfill, and thirty-six times more jobs than incineration.

"What we need is a radical commitment to reducing the huge mountain of waste produced in Scotland. Recycling and reusing is only part of the picture. We need to stop this mountain being produced in the first place. At a time of economic recession, there is never a better time to start saving our valuable resources and create new, sustainable green jobs for our future. There's already significant pressure on funding for some of the best community recycling projects. The crucial test for the Minister will be whether he can protect this sector or is prepared to let it sink amongst the cuts to public services."

Hunterston plant would be a dirty great mistake

For immediate release 2 June 2010

Ayrshire Power's formal application to build a new coal plant at Hunterston today must be rejected, Greens argued, and following a vote against the plant at Holyrood earlier this year. The plant would, if approved by Ministers, be designed to capture only a small percentage of its emissions, even assuming carbon capture and storage can be demonstrated successfully, and would commit Scotland to a long-term reliance on coal power. In October 2009 the Danish energy firm Dong backed out of the joint venture behind the scheme.

Patrick Harvie MSP said:

"The era of new coal-fired power stations is over, and this plant must never be permitted to go ahead. It's incompatible with building a green and successful economy, it was explicitly rejected by the Scottish Parliament in March this year, and one half of the joint venture has already left the sinking ship.

"A new coal-fired power station would inevitably mean new opencast coal here in Scotland or dirty coal imports from overseas. Even if the company's plans to capture and store carbon were to work, and the scientific community is split as to whether it will ever be feasible, Ayrshire Power propose to capture only a small amount of the pollution this scheme would cause.

"We already know that Scotland has the capacity to power itself several times over from renewable energy alone, and if this government or its predecessors had shown serious determination over the last decade we could be nearly there already. Building a new coal plant at Hunterston would not just distract from that task, it would be a dirty great mistake and undermine efforts to clean up Scotland's power supply."