Climate activists have urged councillors to reject plans for a new gas-fired power station in Aberdeenshire.
The local authority's Infrastructure Committee is to vote on whether to approve proposals from operators of the plant SSE to build a new facility on the existing site in Peterhead. As reported by Aberdeen Live, the Scottish Government's Energy Consents Unit will make the final decision on the plans.
However, Aberdeenshire Council's committee members will be able to have their say and scrutinise the proposals on Thursday. Friends of the Earth Scotland are calling on councillors to block the proposals - and they say the plans are built on the "rotten foundations of carbon capture".
Alex Lee, a spokesperson for the group, said: "The climate crisis means that the Peterhead fossil gas plant must be stopped. New fossil fuel infrastructure only benefits greedy energy firms and those companies who want to keep us hooked on oil and gas for decades to come.
“Local councillors have an opportunity and a responsibility to interrogate the claims of the developers of this climate-wrecking project. The whole plan is to be built on the rotten foundations of carbon capture, which is a technology with a long, inglorious history of repeated failures.
"Councillors must probe the developers on the reams of evidence that shows carbon capture, if it is ever added, will not work at the rates promised by industry, further jeopardising our efforts to meet climate targets. Scottish Government ministers will have the final say on whether to cancel this project but councillors this week can throw a real spanner in the works by formally objecting to this application.
"Local representatives have a chance to send a clear message that the future of the north-east of Scotland must be built on good green jobs, renewable energy and putting the needs of workers and communities at the very heart of transition planning.”
A spokesperson for SSE previously said Peterhead power station was "absolutely vital" for the electricity system, enabling the growth of wind power. This came after an investigation by The Ferret revealed that the gas-fired plant was also the country's largest climate polluter in 2020 and the two preceding years.
The spokesperson said: "We are instead taking responsibility by progressing plans to decarbonise Peterhead using carbon capture and storage technology. The clean energy transition is just that – a transition. It can’t be done overnight but, as the UK’s leading generator of renewable energy, investing billions in low-carbon infrastructure, SSE is doing more than anyone to accelerate it.”
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