{"id":28113,"date":"2023-11-28T19:48:23","date_gmt":"2023-11-28T19:48:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/?p=28113"},"modified":"2023-12-22T20:39:51","modified_gmt":"2023-12-22T20:39:51","slug":"grangemouth-no-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/2023\/11\/28\/grangemouth-no-more\/","title":{"rendered":"Grangemouth no more"},"content":{"rendered":"

The following article by Mike Small was first posted by bella caledonia.<\/a> It highlights the failure of either the UK government (the main culprit) or the Scottish government (despite paper commitments) to follow a policy of Just Transition in the face of climate breakdown. It also points to further Unionist attempts to break the SNP\/Green coalition in order to open up new oilfields and greatly increase \u00a0fossil fuel production.<\/strong><\/p>\n

GRANGEMOUTH NO MORE<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The announcement of the closure of Grangemouth oil refinery as early as 2025, with the loss of hundreds of jobs, represents a severe blow to the Scottish economy. It also throws into sharp relief the complete absence of a viable, urgent Just Transition programme, the precarity of a nation unable to cohere a (re) or (de) industrialisation strategy, the absurdity of key aspects of the economy being in the hands of private companies and the utter failure to step up to or respond to climate breakdown.<\/p>\n

Responding to the announcements the Future Economy Scotland Co-Director Miriam Brett said:<\/p>\n

\u201cManaged effectively, the transition to net zero has the potential to create more new jobs than will be lost. Where is the plan to secure a thriving future for the communities supported by Grangemouth Refinery? Where are the commitments to harness and develop the existing skills of workers in the transition, and the proactive policies to reskill and retrain workers?<\/p>\n

\u201cDecarbonising Scotland\u2019s economy will involve a major restructuring of our labour market. Today\u2019s announcement demonstrates how crucial it is that impacted communities \u2013 particularly workers and trade unions \u2013 are given a meaningful stake and say over decisions that affect them to ensure the costs and benefits of decarbonisation are fairly shared.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe development also underscores why the transition to net zero should not be guided solely by shareholder decisions but instead should be coordinated effectively, with the shared goals of creating a new generation of well paid green jobs, raising living standards, and tackling deep-rooted inequalities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Friends of the Earth Scotland just transition campaigner Rosie Hampton said:<\/p>\n

\u201cWorkers at the refinery and the wider community at Grangemouth deserve better than how they have been treated today by rich bosses in distant boardrooms. Escalating climate breakdown and the move away from fossil fuelled vehicles means that the transition away from oil and gas is essential in the coming years. Today\u2019s announcement is, sadly, the inevitable consequence of the Scottish Government\u2019s repeated failure to grasp this reality and to put concrete transition plans in place with workers.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cScotland\u2019s energy future must see our lives powered by renewables that are owned and operated in the public interest.\u201d<\/p>\n

Others were less considered.<\/p>\n

Alex Massie, who has severe problems with climate reality writes \u2018Grangemouth is a reality check for Scotland\u2019s politicians\u2019: \u201cPoliticians prattle on about a \u201cjust transition\u201d without ever specifying what this actually means.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is simply not true. He must know this.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is an aspiration and nothing more than that, a collective crossing of fingers in the hope that something will turn up to make it some kind of tangible reality. Dirty and climate-ruining old jobs will magically become clean, climate-saving, new jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Again this is just completely untrue. The definition of \u2018clean\u2019 renewable energy is unquestionable and has been for many decades.<\/p>\n

\u201cLike many nice things, this is little more than fantasy; a form of wishful thinking so divorced from reality that it may only be sustained by a kind of collective agreement that delusion is more comfortable than the truth.\u201d<\/p>\n

The real delusion here is of course is the world in which nothing is done about our climate catastrophe.<\/p>\n

This oration floats fact-free in the pages of The Times, without reference to any of the research or plans for a Just Transition. It\u2019s not clear if Massie doesn\u2019t know any of this or just doesn\u2019t care. He goes on:<\/p>\n

\u201cMutton-headed politicians who support\u00a0Just Stop Oil<\/a>\u00a0protests and oppose the granting of new exploration licences in the North Sea now deplore the closing of an oil refinery. You can pick one of these positions but you cannot sensibly choose both. It is a feature of our Alice in Wonderland politics, however, that so many Scottish politicians incant green pieties while also deploring actions which accelerate the decarbonisation of the Scottish economy they have spent years demanding.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is Tartan Cakeism of a kind even Boris Johnson might struggle to swallow. Petroineos\u2019s decision to shutter the Grangemouth refinery may not be directly linked to the Scottish government\u2019s green ambitions but it serves as a warning nonetheless.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMay not be directly linked\u201d is doing a lot of heavy-lifting here.<\/p>\n

A few facts seem to have eluded the Times columnist.<\/p>\n

Energy is\u00a0 not devolved.<\/p>\n

This is happening under the Union.<\/p>\n

Over at the Scottish Daily Mail Graham Grant is doing the same \u2018SNP\u2019s \u2018hostility\u2019 to oil industry blamed as Scotland\u2019s only refinery to be axed \u2013 The Mail<\/a>\u2018 \u2013 he writes: \u201cOpposition leaders condemned the announcement and blamed the SNP\u2019s green energy plans, including its \u2018just transition\u2019 agenda, for the shutdown and hefty job losses.\u201d<\/p>\n

*
\nThe hysterical reaction of the Unionist scribes to these job losses is to conjure a tissue of lies to be weaponised against the SNP-Green coalition which they loathe and to ignore the fundamental reality facing us all, of imminent and catastrophic climate breakdown, a reality which has apparently eluded them.<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a remarkable contortion of the most basic facts and an extraordinary act of deluding not just their readers but themselves about what\u2019s going on. As the playwright Peter Arnott puts it: \u201cOnce again, the stripping back to nothing of Scotland\u2019s producing industries WITHIN the Union is harnessed as an argument FOR the Union.\u201d<\/p>\n

23.11.23<\/strong><\/p>\n

______________<\/p>\n

also see:<\/p>\n

The Centre for Alternative Technology in Wales closing its visitor centre is tragic \u2013 Ken Moon, The Canary<\/a><\/p>\n

Environmental degradation and sustainable development – EL&SD coverage<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0Grangemouth \u2013 What now for the Left in Scotland? \u2013 Allan Armstrong, Jerry Hicks, Socialist Democracy (Ireland)<\/a><\/p>\n

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