Energy and Aberdeen

Two things have been ailing me this week: the energy industry, and the future of Aberdeen.

Thursday saw the Coalition Government's announcement of electricity market reform. I can't even begin to outline the competing agendas and ideas boiling away in this policy cauldron right now, but DECC's consultation paper proposes a UK carbon tax on top of the European Emission Trading Scheme, contracts to top up revenue in the event of low electricity prices, payments to the private sector to encourage reserve capacity and an emission performance standard.

Seems like a lot? It is, as the Financial Times points out. The coalition's scheme essentially tries to regulate the economics of a privatised electricity market. But if the market is failing why are we as a country insisting on on prevailing with the private sector rather than state run utilities? The current privatised scheme was conceived long before low carbon energy was a priority, and cajoling business into selling product into a market at a loss cannot be much more efficient than the state system we left behind. I have to say I'm not convinced state utilities are the way to go either, although I'd love to have that debate and be educated otherwise.

There was a clear piece of positive energy news this week - the EU has committed €40m of funding for Aberdeen's proposed offshore wind test centre. The farm has already been scaled back to 11 turbines from the 33 initially, and Donald Trump looks keen to kill the project off. We must persevere with the project, and I am a firm supporter. It won't be anything near a substitute for oil and gas in the city, but it's an important step towards a more diverse economic future.

And what future will our children have in the city, at schools without teaching assistants? Children with special needs abandoned? What future will the city have with more of this Lib Dem administration that puts a gun to public sector workers' heads, demanding them to take a pay cut or face compulsory redundancy? At the same time as they put up VAT in Westminster? The Liberal party has to go - next year in Holyrood, in local government elections the year after and as soon as possible from Westminster.