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Politics
Peter Davidson

'Completely unacceptable' SNP minister rages at UK government over energy strategy communication

An SNP minister has slammed the Tory UK Government for not consulting on a future energy strategy which will "lean heavily on Scotland's resources".

Michael Matheson, Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero, Energy and Transport, revealed he was not given a copy of Boris Johnson plans for the future ahead of its publication.

During an interview on Good Morning Scotland Matheson said it was "completely unacceptable" that no one had engaged with the Scottish Government ahead of the long awaited strategy.

The Prime Minister hopes the strategy will help drive energy prices down and reduce the dependency on foreign imports of oil and gas.

Maximising North Sea oil and gas, building more nuclear facilities and moving towards cleaner energy is expected to be announced by Johnson later today.

Plans will be set out in more detail later, however Matheson hit out at the UK over its lack of communication with Nicola Sturgeon's government on the strategy.

He said: "The UK government haven't provided a copy of the strategy to the Scottish Government and they haven't engaged with us in the development on the strategy.

"I realised that the development of the strategy has been somewhat chaotic given the coverage it has had in the press over the course of the last couple of weeks.

"Despite having written to the UK government last month setting out a range of actions that we believe that they should take and the fact that it will lean very heavily on Scotland's energy resources it's critical that the Scottish Government were involved in the shaping of any strategy and consulted on its content.

"Sadly none of that' happened, which is completely unacceptable given that Scotland is an exporter of energy to other parts of the UK and will continue to become even more important as we move towards becoming a net zero society.

"We are in a situation where I'm afraid I can't tell you what's good in this strategy, but what I do know is that it will lean very heavily on Scotland's energy resources in the years to come."

The plan has been criticised for not saying enough about tackling high bills now, instead focusing on longer-term shifts in energy generation.

Johnson said the plan would make British energy "cleaner, more affordable and more secure".

As well as the already-announced £9 billion package to help with rising costs, the Government would "bring those bills downs" by "upgrading homes so they use less energy".

Ending dependence on foreign oil and gas would make supply more secure, he said, with a shift to British fossil fuels during the transition to cleaner forms of energy.

That would involve "capturing their emissions and storing them safely under the sea", he said - but carbon capture projects have been promised by successive governments without any real progress.

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