11 February 2013

Responding to the study by Dr David Toke of Birmingham University which claims the country's renewable energy targets would be 'unachievable' in an independent Scotland, Labour's Shadow Energy Minister and MP for Rutherglen and Hamilton West, Tom Greatrex said:

"This study is confirmation of what everybody - including SNP Ministers in Edinburgh - already knows. 

"With one third of the support payments and less than a tenth of the consumer base, the continued development of renewable energy in Scotland is dependent upon being part of the integrated British energy system. 

"As Scottish-based SSE have previously made clear, the case for renewable investment in Scotland is dependent on being part a single energy market. In energy, as with much else, Scotland is better as part of the UK. It makes no sense to change that."

ENDS