Member News
By Thomas Docherty MP - 17th January 2012
Thomas Docherty MP says the decision to withdraw funding for a CSS scheme in Fife has thrown up a number of questions about the future of the technology in Scotland.
Shortly before Christmas the government announced that it had been unable to reach an agreement with Spanish Energy Giant Iberdrola, owner of Longannet Power Station to support a pilot scheme to test the feasibility of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS).
As well as the deep disappointment felt in my own constituency, the announcement has thrown up a number of questions about the future of the technology in Scotland.
The debate will provide Members of Parliament with an opportunity to discuss not just the alternative schemes, but to debate the future opportunities for the technology as a whole.
CCS is an unproven technology, which provides great possibilities for helping to meet the UK's energy needs as part of a balanced mix of supply.
However, the costs involved in making the technology work are unknown at this stage and the govenment has a duty to the taxpayer to ensure that billions are not thrown at a particular scheme that ultimately does not work.
The UK has a long and not very glorious tradition of investing vast sums of taxpayer's in emerging technologies that have ultimately failed to deliver the promised returns.
Successive governments have grappled with how best to balance the desire to ensure the UK has access to emerging technologies with the Treasury's need to be financially responsible.
I hope that today's debate will shed some light on the issues that the government is grappling with and further the ongoing discussions.
Thomas Docherty is Labour MP for Dunfermline and West Fife.
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