With the announcement of the closure of Longannet power station we are probably already in the final year of coal power in Scotland, with the plant expected to stop generating in March next year. We should celebrate the end of …
INEOS – the figures they want you to believe and the numbers they don’t want you to know
Today’s papers make much of INEOS’s claim that fracking could bring £2.5bn of benefit to communities in Scotland. This is despite (a) INEOS having already said this last year (here) and (b) this number being as dodgy as a three-week-old …
Crunch time for the SNP on fracking
The Scottish Government has been markedly less enthusiastic about the development of unconventional gas and fracking than its UK counterpart. However, circumstances are conspiring to ensure that in the next few months, the SNP will have to finally come off …
Inquiry day 12 – Orson Welles, public data and buffer zones
Today we spent a long time picking over Dart’s Waste Management Plan, including a lunch-time huddle on whether the development was an extractive waste area, an extractive waste facility or a Category A extractive waste facility. We also debated whether …
Inquiry day 10 – regulating acronyms
We had a day of PEDL, CAR, PPC, MEW and other TLAs (Three Letter Acronyms).* This was the first day of hearing sessions – parties sitting around the table having a discussion rather than individual witnesses being grilled for hours. …
Inquiry day 9 – defunct companies, carbon budgets and planning for the climate
Douglas Bain, in charge of the UK for Dart spoke this morning – after 8 days this was the first time anyone got to question someone actually from Dart Energy rather than their consultants. Mr Bain made much of the …
Inquiry day 8 – Planning, energy policy and wishful thinking
Dart’s planning expert spent all day at the witness table today, several hours of it under the politely merciless scrutiny of our lawyer. Dart tried to go through all the historical sites for which they still had current planning permissions. …
Inquiry day 7 – climate, health and planes
The other side tried to play games today, with our questioning under time pressure because we were told their air quality and climate witness had to leave by 10. After follow up questions by the reporters and Dart’s QC he …
Inquiry day 6 – Cultural heritage and climate change
Today Concerned Communities of Falkirk got the opportunity to put Cultural Heritage, from participation to community values, in front of the Inquiry. Input ranged from a very personal account of concern over the threat to a local resident’s dream home …
Inquiry day 5 – frogs and toxic rain
Today was the first day at Falkirk Stadium, rather more cramped than last week’s venue, but with much more reasonable prices for tea … Today’s special session took video evidence from Australia from toxics expert Dr Mariann Lloyd-Smith and GP …
Inquiry day 4 – big beasts
We started the day with Dart’s witness on leaking methane saying that you can never get two geologists to agree. One of the undercurrents over many months has been the rivarlry between RPS and AMEC – two big beasts of …
Inquiry day 3 – Geology and Punk Rock
After 15 hours over two and half days of Dart’s witnesses we finally got to hear from a witness from the objectors, Emeritus Prof David Smythe from Glasgow University. He covered errors in which way faults ran and where the …