Exclusive:Grangemouth lessons 'will inform every decision we make' - UK energy minister Michael Shanks
Michael Shanks will warn opposition parties that ‘burying your head in the sand’ about the fossil fuel sector ‘will not protect a single job, nor create a single new one’
“Lessons” from the closure of the Grangemouth refinery “will inform every decision we make”, a UK energy minister will say today.
Michael Shanks will warn opposition parties in a speech at the Just Transition Commission in Edinburgh that “burying your head in the sand” about the fossil fuel sector “will not protect a single job, nor create a single new one”.
The Rutherglen MP will also say that his party’s government “refuses to accept the status quo of the last decade”.
Mr Shanks will say: “As the Just Transition Commission’s report on Grangemouth makes abundantly clear, there was simply no plan for the future of the refinery when we came into power last year.
“Now I could say if we had been in government, it would all have been done differently. But hindsight doesn’t pay the bills.
“Within weeks of it becoming clear we couldn’t keep the refinery open, we’d worked with the Scottish Government to put together a £100 million package for the community and local workforce, including tailored support to secure good, alternative jobs.
“We also launched Project Willow to find an industrial future for the site, identifying nine potential projects that could support hundreds of jobs. We have now received over 100 enquiries following the announcement that the National Wealth Fund will take the unprecedented step of ringfencing £200 million for Grangemouth – and we are ready to take these forward by co-investing with the private sector.
“These are the lessons which will inform every decision we make. This Labour government refuses to accept the status quo of the last decade.
“If you will forgive me to make a party political point, I want to gently point out to political opponents on both sides that burying your head in the sand about the sector, ignoring the realities of the need for transition, will not protect a single job, nor create a single new one.
“And neither will abandoning the entire sector to turn off the taps, as some want to. This must never become a binary conversation. And it must never become about those in one industry, pitted against those in another.
“The future of the North Sea lies in collaboration and stewardship. We have an obligation to work together.”
Hundreds of jobs were lost when the Grangemouth site stopped refining oil earlier this year.
Mr Shanks will also repeat his plea for the SNP to accept new nuclear sites in Scotland. “Clean energy is the economic opportunity of the century,” he will say. “Waging a war on clean energy jobs as the Conservatives and Reform seem to be doing is economically illiterate.
“Nuclear, with its skilled, long-term, well-paid jobs, should be a key part of our energy mix here in Scotland, but is rejected out of hand by the SNP.
“Now is the time to build the future we want to see - ensuring security and prosperity for the workers and communities of today and building a brighter future for generations to come.”
Mr Shanks recently told The Scotsman there could be new nuclear reactors at Hunterston and Torness if the SNP did not oppose it.
The SNP opposes new nuclear and instead wants to invest in renewables.
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