Dozens of organisations urge Scottish Government to reject Peterhead fossil fuel power plant expansion

Fuel poverty, grassroots climate groups and marine protection organisations are amongst a total of 44 groups who have written to Scottish Government Ministers this week urging them to reject proposals for a new gas burning power station at Peterhead.

The letter signed by Oxfam Scotland, Fuel Poverty Action, Friends of the Earth Scotland and dozens of others highlights how new gas in Aberdeenshire would maintain the current energy system which is “dominated by exploitative fossil fuel companies who are benefitting off ordinary people’s hardship.”

The signatories warn Ministers about reliance on carbon capture saying workers “should not be strung along with empty promises of jobs in fairytale carbon capture” and pointing out of the environmental and ethical risks of trying to store carbon under the North Sea in perpetuity.

The Scottish Government is considering an application from SSE and Equinor to build a new gas burning station with carbon capture next to the existing plant at Peterhead. The proposal would also lock Scottish households into paying energy prices which are set by international gas markets and are prone to external shocks such as the war in Ukraine. Climate campaigners have protested outside Equinor offices in Aberdeen and SSE headquarters in Perth in recent weeks about the companies’ fossil fuel expansion plans.

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