By IRNA,
London : The Scottish Green Party has welcomed a High Court ruling giving permission for a legal challenge to UK’s decision to grant licenses for deepwater drilling off the coast of Shetland following the Gulf of Mexico disaster.
Green member of the Scottish Parliament and party leader Patrick Harvie said the ruling was a “significant decision” as the UK government granted such licenses even before the investigations into BP’s Gulf of Mexico disaster had finished.
‘Since then even some of those already given licenses to drill in deep waters off Shetland have admitted that they are not prepared for a similar disaster in Scottish waters,” Harvie said.
Last week, the High Court in London gave the go-ahead for a review of Energy Secretary Chris Huhne’s decision to grant oil drilling licenses in deep waters off the Scottish coast, which could have significant implications for the UK oil industry.
‘Events in Libya and the subsequent spike in oil prices have illustrated again how over-dependent our economy is on oil,” Harvie said.
“Rather than take unjustifiable risks exploring for yet more reserves in even harsher environments, we should be moving urgently to clean energy sources for transport, heat and power. Neither our economy nor our environment can afford to stick with business-as-usual,” he warned.
The application for a judicial review was lodged by environmentalist group Greenpeace last November, arguing that the granting of these licenses is unlawful as the government has failed to carry out an “appropriate assessment” of the risks.
In January, the all-party Energy and Climate Change Select Committee called for extra precautions on deepwater drilling to ensure there is not another Gulf of Mexico oil disaster, but warned against a moratorium.
“The harsh and windy conditions in the North Sea would make an oil spill off the coast of Shetland very difficult to contain or clean up,” said committee chair Tim Yeo.
Yeo called on the UK government to ensure that oil spill response plans drawn up by companies are site-specific and take into account local conditions.
But he warned that a “moratorium on deepwater drilling off the west coast of Shetland would undermine the UK’s energy security” and insisted it was not necessary.