So how are Scotland’s energy needs going to be met?
The issue has generated a lot of heat over the last few days but not a lot of light.
What little light, or maybe it should be lights, we have had may go out a lot sooner than we would want with the disclosure this week that the huge coal-fired power station at Longannet is facing a renewed threat to its future. ScottishPower, which operates the plant, warned that the cost of connecting to the National Grid means the station may close earlier than planned.
Transmission charges are a matter for the electricity regulator, and there is political pressure to produce a solution now that Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has called on Prime Minister David Cameron to guarantee the security of Scotland’s electricity supplies.
Whether and when that will happen remains to be seen, but there isn’t a lot of room for manoeuvre.
The alternative to coal-fired power is nuclear power, and both of these stations in Scotland, Torness and Hunterston, could close in less than a decade.
Such a prospect might have prompted the government of the day to openly consider renewing them, but not the Scottish Government which is politically opposed to nuclear power.
There is evidence for and against this form of energy. The USA, China and France have many nuclear power plants, while Italy has banned them and Germany is closing its ones by 2022.
They are efficient producers of electricity and figures show they have produced fewer fatalities per unit of energy than other major source of energy generation. When there are accidents, however, they tend to be very serious: think Chernobyl, Three Mile Island and Fukushima.
The Scottish Government hopes our energy needs can be met from renewables such as wind and wave power. The nation is rich in such assets, but the technology to effectively harness these natural resources remains elusive.
Just as difficult to capture are the economic benefits supposed to be generated by the renewables industry.
A memorandum of understanding three years ago to bring 700 of these jobs to Dundee has not produced a single post.
Scottish & Southern Energy last year pulled back from renewable energy projects, and the much-vaunted Pelamis wave-power company has gone into administration.
A new energy hope for Scotland emerged with fracking, the hydraulic fracturing of underground rock to release shale gas and oil.
America is already doing it in a big way so big that the world’s main oil producers have slashed the price of their black gold to protect their threatened market.
Fracking could be a very significant industry across central Scotland and support thousands of jobs.
Ineos, owners of Scotland’s largest petrochemical plant, at Grangemouth, has acquired more than 700 square miles of fracking exploration licences in the central belt.
Ineos proposes using shale gas as a raw material for its chemicals plants, and has plans to put millions into exploration which would safeguard thousands of jobs.
Last week it said its facility is unlikely to have a long-term future unless an indigenous shale gas industry can be developed.
The Scottish Government is having a moratorium on granting planning consents for fracking because of environmental concerns.
It wants to hold public consultation as part of “a careful, considered and evidence-based approach” to fracking, including the health impact assessment, but hasn’t yet announced details of the deliberations.
Scientific evidence exists that fracking works. Strathclyde University has huge expertise and has provided assurances that the processes are safe, will not damage the environment and will provide cheaper domestic gas.
Professor Quentin Fisher, an expert in petroleum engineering at Leeds University, said Westminster’s Environmental Audit Committee was wrong to put fracking on hold because it had ignored evidence-based studies and overstated the dangers of shale gas extraction.
Oil is another toiling domestic energy industry, because the collapse of the world price has made North Sea oil too expensive to produce.
Scotland may not have much ability to control its own oil industry but it does have the means to produce electricity as well as shale and coal gas from its own borders and seas.
If it doesn’t, it could reach a situation where it imports nuclear electricity and shale gas from outside its borders because it lacks the will to do it for itself.
Maybe the environmental concerns about developing these fuel sources are correct, but are we correct to “switch off” our investigations and desire to develop these technologies when we don’t have all the facts?
Should Scotland not be gathering all the evidence without moratoriums, without delay, so that the best decisions in the best time can be made?