Jeremy Hunt accused of 'shafting Scotland' by failing to fund north east carbon capture scheme

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Jeremy Hunt has been accused of “shafting Scotland” after failing to announce any funds in his Budget for a major carbon capture scheme in the north east.SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn said the Acorn Scottish cluster project in Peterhead had suffered a decade of broken funding promises from Westminster.Addressing MPs yesterday, the Chancellor revealed £20 billion in new support for Carbon Capture Usage and Storage (CCUS) technology across the UK.But he gave no mention of the Acorn cluster, based at St Fergus gas terminal in Aberdeenshire.Insiders had been optimistic that Hunt would green-light cash for the scheme this week after the Scottish CCUS site was snubbed for UK Government funding two years ago, in favour of hubs in England.In his statement to MPs, however, the Tory finance chief suggested the Scottish site may be sidelined again for a facility in Wales.CCUS technology involves capturing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere from fossil fuels, then either using the polluting gas for other functions or else injecting it back into the ground, such as into empty North Sea oil and gas fields.The Acorn scheme proposes using existing pipelines to transfer greenhouse gases north, such as from Ineos’ Grangemouth refinery.Nats Westminster chief Flynn hit out: "After a decade of broken promises, it's utterly shameful that the Tory government is shafting Scotland yet again by failing to announce any funding for the Acorn project and Scottish carbon capture at the Budget."UK government ministers promised Scotland would get £1billion of CCUS investment during the 2014 independence referendum, only to break that promise and withdraw the funding within weeks of the vote."It beggars belief that the Tories are still refusing to