The Scottish Government has said it remains deeply sceptical about fracking as the Tories called on ministers to ignore the “left wing cabal” which is said to be holding back a £33 billion job-creating industry.
New Environment Secretary Roseanna Cunningham said a moratorium will persist until expert and public opinion has been gathered on the divisive gas extraction technology.
But Conservative environment spokesman Maurice Golden questioned how fracking opponents “can look the unemployed oil and gas workers in the eye while refusing them a new job”.
Labour sought to hijack a Holyrood environment debate to expose SNP divisions on fracking and exploit their reduced ranks to force the nationalists’ to vote with the Tories to keep fracking on the table.
Ms Cunningham said: “This Government is deeply sceptical about fracking, and we have ensured that no fracking can take place by putting in place a moratorium.
“We are also undertaking thorough research, and plan to consult the people of Scotland fully on the issue so that any decision is based on both the evidence and public opinion.”
Mr Golden said: “The Scottish economy is stagnant, unemployment is increasing, output is flatlining.
“That’s why we must allow fracking in order to create jobs and boost the economy.
“Fracking will generate up to £33 billion and create up to 64,000 jobs for the UK, according to Ernst and Young.
“For the three amigos, the left wing cabal of Labour, the Liberal Democrats and the Greens, I say to you that you are out of step with the scientific evidence and with what consumers and businesses want and need.
“I think you need to stop playing politics and start standing up for Scottish jobs.
“How you can look the unemployed oil and gas workers in the eye while refusing them a new job is beyond me.
“For the SNP, you need to make your mind up. Your more indecisive than the Lib Dems.
“You need to listen to your own advice, and I quote from your own Scottish Government report: ’The technology exists to allow the safe extraction of such resources’.
“You need to think about the long-term consequences of blocking an industry that has so much potential to create jobs and increase the security of supply.”
Labour environment spokeswoman Claudia Beamish said: “In the run up to last year’s general election, some SNP candidates couldn’t shout loudly enough about their opposition to fracking. Yet the SNP Government refuses to ban it.
“Nicola Sturgeon claims to be a fracking sceptic but won’t go further than a temporary freeze.
“Today we will see once and for all which side of the fracking debate the SNP members are really on. If they vote against our amendment then they are effectively saying to people that they want to keep the door open to the possibility of fracking, and only a vote on an outright ban will show beyond all doubt that the parliament rejects fracking in Scotland.
“So to the SNP I say this, you have a choice. It’s a choice between working with left centre parties like Labour to ban fracking, or working with the Tories to push through fracking in Scotland.”
Green MSP Alison Johnstone said: “Fracking is an unwelcome diversion from the potential that we have in renewables in this country.
“I appreciate that the UK Government are fixated on incredibly expensive nuclear power, but… we should be looking to the future rather than backwards.”