THE energy policy pursued by the SNP in government has been perceived by opponents as potentially its biggest Achilles' heel.
Above everything else, the policy has two aims – to build up renewable energy capacity so that it is the dominant supplier, and to end the use of nuclear power in Scotland when the current power stations come to the end of their lifespans.
Alread
y, there has been severe criticism from the business community and political opponents – principally the UK government, supported by Scottish Labour and the Tories – that this is a strategy that will mean the lights go out across Scotland.
The argument has always been that while nuclear waste is toxic, this form of generating power has no carbon emissions. Last year, both Labour's Holyrood spokesman on energy Lewis Macdonald and the Tories' spokesman Gavin Brown were publicly critical of the SNP official priorities, saying they did not state the three essential elements of cost, security of supply and reduction in carbon emissions.
They said that there was a danger the SNP were forgetting the need to have a base supply of energy, rather than one dependent on whether the wind was blowing.
So, as a result of their ideological opposition to nuclear power, the Nationalists have had to turn to continuing coal power for a base supply.
But this has left the SNP increasingly facing questions over the fact that coal power stations pump huge amounts of carbon into the atmosphere and are not the best way to tackle climate change.
It seems to be the wrong way to meet the ambitious 80 per cent reduction in carbon emissions by 2050 set in the Climate Change Bill that will go through parliament this year.
However, a pet project of First Minister Alex Salmond's has appeared to come to the rescue. He has been a great supporter of carbon capture, a process by which former energy supply fields, such oilfields out at sea or coalmines, can be reused to create almost carbon-free sources of supply.
Mr Salmond always wanted carbon capture to be tested off the Peterhead coast in the former Miller oilfield, and leading energy companies were ready to start work.
However, thanks to UK government delay and a decision that carbon capture in Britain should be tried out on former coalmines, this fell through.
After the initial disappointment, it occurred to the SNP that using the former coalmines in Fife and elsewhere for carbon capture could get them out of a hole on justifying their policy on base supply.
