![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/wildland1.jpg\" "\\"wildland\\"")
Dennis Canavan, Convener of Ramblers Scotland, has called on the new leader of the Tory party in Scotland to press for fundamental changes in UK energy policy.<\/p>\nDennis Canavan, Convener of Ramblers Scotland, has called on the new leader of the Tory party in Scotland to press for fundamental changes in UK energy policy.<\/p>\n
Speaking on the day before Scotland finds out who is to be the next Scottish Tory Party leader, Dennis Canavan said: \u201cI want to see the new Tory leader stand up to the Prime Minister, David Cameron, and tell him what is wrong with UK Government energy policy and persuade him to make some fundamental changes. The top priorities must be to abolish the subsidy paid to the developers of large scale onshore windfarms and to restructure the regulatory regime so that Ofgem is split up to create a new energy regulator for Scotland, responsible to the Scottish Parliament.<\/p>\n
Dennis Canavan emphasised the urgency in making these changes in the next few months and the need for the new Scottish Tory leader to put these matters to the top of the agenda for his or her first meeting with the Prime Minister. Dennis Canavan said: \u201cUK Government Energy policy is destroying the finest wild land in the UK with the relentless expansion of industrial scale windfarms across Scotland. The crazy financial subsidies provided to energy companies through the levy applied to all UK electricity consumers is responsible for destroying the natural heritage of Scotland. Why do this when the cost of these subsidies is also driving more and more of our citizens into fuel poverty? In addition, it is making all our commercial enterprises less competitive, unless they are one of the big six energy companies.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe subsidy paid to the energy companies through the Renewables Obligation must be removed from large scale land based windfarms and redirected to other forms of renewables developments, especially offshore tidal, wave and wind developments. Onshore development of renewables should be small scale, for example using biomass, ground source heat, solar and farm\/croft\/community projects based on hydro power or small wind turbines.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dennis Canavan also called for a fundamental review of the way in which energy companies are regulated within the UK. He called for key aspects of energy policy to be devolved to the separate nations. Central to this is the need to split up Ofgem and the creation of a stand- alone Scottish regulator responsible to the Scottish Parliament. Dennis Canavan said:<\/p>\n
\u201cOfgem is no longer fit for purpose. Its failure to robustly challenge the subsidy regime and its attitude towards the development of the national grid points to an organisation that is more interested in a cosy relationship with the energy companies than safeguarding and securing the public interest in energy supply. Ofgem has been the driving force behind the disastrous Beauly- Denny powerline, seemingly oblivious to the impact of this powerline on the Scottish landscape and the escalating costs of the project as the \u00a3330 million cost quoted to secure planning approval has now risen to \u00a3600 million as the developers, Scottish Power and Scottish and Southern Energy, ride the Ofgem gravy train. The only answer is to scrap the National Grid and establish a Scottish Grid, supervised by a Scottish Ofgem, accountable to the Scottish Parliament.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dennis Canavan said that it is time for Scottish Tories to stand up and be counted:\u201cMany Scottish Tories are deeply concerned at the UK Government\u2019s energy policy. But even with MEP Struan Stevenson leading the Scottish Tory challenge on energy policy, the Prime Minister appears to be asleep at the wheel. We need a new Scottish Tory leader who will stand up for Scotland and demonstrate that it is Scottish politicians who decide what is good for Scotland, not the directors and shareholders of energy companies or out of touch Westminster politicians\u201d. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dennis Canavan, Convener of Ramblers Scotland, has called on the new leader of the Tory party in Scotland to press for fundamental changes in UK energy policy. Speaking on the day before Scotland finds out who is to be the next Scottish Tory Party leader, Dennis Canavan said: \u201cI want to see the new Tory leader stand up to the Prime Minister, David Cameron, and tell him what is wrong with UK Government energy policy and persuade him to make some fundamental changes. The top priorities must be to abolish the subsidy paid to the developers of large scale onshore…<\/span> <\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5606","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-conservation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5606","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5606"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5606\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23403,"href":"https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5606\/revisions\/23403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Read more ›<\/div>\n