Fife Council has gone to war with the Scottish Government, demanding ministers “come clean” over plans to ignite coal reserves under the Forth.
A rallying call has gone out to MSPs to back Fife Council’s bid to make the Scottish Government include plans for underground coal gasification in the Forth in its moratorium on fracking.
The plea comes amid growing confusion over the Government’s stance on the ban on unconventional oil and gas developments.
Cluff Natural Resources is the firm behind the contentious plans for the Forth, wanting to convert millions of tonnes of coal under the seabed to gas under the UCG process.
It emerged its boss, Algy Cluff, had warned the Government a day after the moratorium that plans to invest more than £250 million in the Forth scheme were at risk.
It was also revealed Alex Neil confirmed to Cluff the moratorium did not apply to offshore underground gasification of coal.
The correspondence saw a backlash from environmentalists, with WWF Scotland director Lang Banks saying: “No company should ever be allowed to hold Scottish Ministers or Scotland’s environment to ransom like this.”
Labour has accused the SNP of being “all over the place” on fracking, with Labour’s shadow energy minister Lewis Macdonald claiming ministers had been dodging questions for months.
Despite Mr Neil’s assurances, SNP MP Tommy Sheppard yesterday said UCG should come under the orbit of the moratorium.
“We need a very clear statement from the SNP about exactly what their policy is on fracking and unconventional gas extraction specifically people need to hear from SNP ministers what activity can go ahead despite their supposed moratorium,” Mr Macdonald said.
Fife Council deputy leader Lesley Laird said: “The Scottish Government have had repeated requests to bring UCG into the scope of the moratorium and they have simply been trying to avoid doing so? Why?”