The public is being given a chance to comment on controversial plans to ignite sub-sea coal seams off Fife.
Public meetings are being organised to outline oil baron Algy Cluff’s proposals to exploit hundreds of tonnes of coal beneath the Firth of Forth.
People will be able to ask questions about the process, which has sparked fears of a potential environmental disaster.
Mr Cluff, 73, has been granted licences by the Coal Authority for underground coal gasification (UCG) off the coast of Levenmouth and Kincardine.
He claims that burning hundreds of tonnes of undersea coal will produce enough gas to fuel Britain cheaply and efficiently for hundreds of years.
However, fears have been expressed that it could pollute Fife’s rising mine water with carcinogenic chemicals, which could then leak into the environment.
Pilot projects in India, the USA and Australia have already seen water contamination caused by the process, which involves drilling a vertical borehole into a coal seam, flushing it with oxygen and igniting it with a burner.
The resulting gas is then piped to onshore power stations, where hydrogen, methane and carbon monoxide are separated for burning.
Mr Cluff, who has formed a new company, Cluff Natural Resources, to carry out the work, was in Fife last week to discuss the plans for the Firth of Forth.
He met Levenmouth councillor Tom Adams in Methil on Friday to explain the process and the timescales involved.
The talks followed a meeting between the oil industry veteran and Scotland’s energy minister Fergus Ewing at the end of August. Mr Adams said that the meeting had been useful but his fears had not been allayed.
“He said this was a novel idea because it had never been tried anywhere else in the world underwater,” he said.
“He said, though, that even though it’s under water, the rigs would be on land because you drill down through a borehole from there.”
While licences have already been granted, Mr Cluff still needs to seek environmental and planning permissions to carry out the work, and test bores will be drilled before a final decision is made.
“Mr Cluff said it would be three or four years down the line before anything starts,” said Mr Adams.
“He will need planning permission for the rigs and power stations, which will be on land.
“I’m pleased we had the meeting as he has agreed to have two public meetings where his team will do presentations and take questions. I still have worries about it at this stage, though, because he couldn’t answer all my questions about potential minewaterpollution.”
The meetings are likely to be organised in Levenmouth and Kincardine, either at the end of October or the beginning of November.
Exact dates and places may be announced as early as the end of this week and Mr Adams has urged as many people as possible to attend.
“This is a big thing which could have a major impact on the area, so people need to know what’s going on,” he said.
Experts say UCG generates electricity more efficiently than simply burning coal and major advantages include its abilities to produce different forms of energy and create useful by-products.
However, opponents to the extraction technique say it produces more pollution than many energy sources and cannot eliminate the environmental harm of coal mining. It also creates significantly more greenhouse gas emissions than petrol.