Letters / VE dispute far from over
Cllr Wills makes his point very well: Viking Energy has always been about the money, and has never been sustainable (End of story? SN, 09/02/15)
‘Ah!’ I hear you say, but the Government will subsidise the electricity produced, and make this venture profitable for the Shetland economy.
Profitable? No, not really.
Ethical? Definitely not!
For this project to be ‘viable’ there must be subsidies, which come from tax. I don’t mind paying tax for things like the NHS, schools, infrastructure and a whole number of other things.
I do mind paying tax to subsidise people who would seek to pillage the Shetland environment for generations to come. Viking Energy is perhaps quite appropriate name for the company for all the wrong reasons.
The words of Wills linger like a bad taste
“Their distressing legal actions were funded in part by the rest of us.”
The entire premise of the Viking Energy project is that it will be “funded by the rest of us”.
“When they first instructed lawyers, Sustainable Shetland did so in the clear knowledge that the effect of going to court would be to delay and disrupt a project which at that time promised massive benefits to the Shetland people’s charitable trust.”
Depends what you call a benefit; there are some things that are worth more than money, things which cannot be bought, though apparently they can be sold.
Councillor Wills then attacks Sustainable Shetland for having cost SCT and Viking energy ‘lost’ revenue (let’s not call it profit).
“That’s because the government operating subsidy to wind farms is now less generous than it was;”
Yes, it is now less generous than it was, it should be zero to force manufacturers and innovators to develop more efficient technologies in the name of profit. If you subsidise the status quo there is little motivation to develop and improve.
And yes, the council that voted VE through planning, and the Scottish Government were democratically elected.
However they totally failed in their democratic duty, first the council voted against the advice of it’s own planning department, then the Scottish Government approved the decision, despite overwhelming opposition.
In any case, how does he have the audacity to speak about democracy, the people of Shetland were denied this when the council refused to have a ballot on the subject.
This was their opportunity to put the whole issue to bed, and it would have been quicker and less costly than taking the issue to court.
The cynic in me believes the council had a good idea what the outcome would be, and simply didn’t like it.
It is my sincere hope that this is far from over.
Finally, I have a business proposition, and I wonder if the council and Scottish Government would support it.
I want to put coils under all the cattle grids, and magnets in cars. Every time a car goes over a cattle grid electricity would be produced.
Set up costs are huge, but if SCT gives me some grants, and I get a big enough subsidy for every watt produced, I should be able to make some money out of it.
Craig Nicol
Vidlin
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