Plan for massive Peterhead gas plant must be rejected by SNP-Green chiefs, say campaigners

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Plans for a huge new gas plant in Peterhead are unnecessary, will damage climate efforts and lock Scots into higher bills, eco campaigners have warned.The new power station, to be built alongside the existing plant at Peterhead, will be equipped with carbon capture technology it’s hoped will massively slash emissions from the site.But activists have questioned claims from the energy firms involved in the project, Perth-based SSE and Norwegian oil giant Equinor, that the facility could capture more than 90 per cent of carbon burned.They say no carbon capture and storage (CCS) scheme on the planet has ever successfully and consistently trapped that much CO2.The CCS process aims to suck harmful carbon from the air as fossil fuels are burned - before it can get into the atmosphere.

The gas would then be piped to empty oil wells under the North Sea.The planning application, which proposes an expansion of the existing site with a new 910 megawatt (MW) gas-burning power station and carbon capture plant, is now with Scottish ministers for approval.SSE’s current 1190MW gas power station at Peterhead has been Scotland’s biggest polluter for the last five years.The firm insists the new plant will provide "vital low-carbon flexible backup to renewables".

It would run well into the 2050s - beyond the Scottish Government’s target date for net zero of 2045.First Minister Humza Yousaf previously slammed Rishi Sunak for approving the controversial Rosebank oil field off Shetland last year, labelling it “climate denial”.Friends of the Earth Scotland claimed as well as hammering national climate efforts, green-lighting the project would lock Scottish households into paying energy bills driven by international gas prices for at least the