Energy resources: Yes or No – You Decide

Aileen and David kindly agreed to debate the case for Yes and No at the Gazette’s Independence Debate in Lanark Memorial Hall on May 26.

They were only too happy to answer questions posed by our readers that we couldn’t quite get through on the night, thanks to a heated meeting which 420 people attended!

So, just a matter of hours before Carluke and Lanark Gazette readers go to the polls to decide on independence, we’re bringing you their responses.

Each hour on the hour, between 8am and 10pm today, we’ll post one of the answers to a question posed by a Gazette reader.

For each question posed, we will give one opinion from the Yes camp and one from the No camp.

Question: Scotland has enormous reserves of various types of energy. What sources should we exploit and why?

Aileen Campbell, Yes campaign: Scotland’s energy future lies in renewable energy. In the long term it is safer and more cost effective, especially when compared to expensive nuclear plants that the Westminster Government favours. Scotland’s renewable potential is enormous with scope to exploit a mix of wind, wave, tidal, solar, and hydro energies – harnessing the natural assets our country has been blessed with. Over the next forty years, Scotland should use its vast oil and gas reserves wisely. Careful management of these reserves will be a key priority for an independent Scotland. By taking control of Scotland’s natural resources, we will be able to establish an oil fund in the same way Norway did in the 1990s. Today, Norway has a savings fund worth £470 billion. With this potential, it is regrettable and inexcusable that people in Scotland face rising prices and increasing fuel poverty. With independence, we will have control over the energy market and its regulation and with that the ability to tailor energy policies in the interests of Scotland and its people.

David Mundell, No campaign: I support a balanced energy policy drawing on all our resources and this is best achieved as part of the larger UK energy market. This is the best way to keep prices down and ensure future energy security.