A consultation is being launched today on plans to try and improve regulation of the coal industry.
Energy Minister Fergus Ewing said the move was part of Scottish Government efforts to both save and create jobs in the industry and ensure appropriate restoration of coaled out mines.
A debate on the coal industry is being held at the Scottish Parliament this afternoon.
The Scottish Green Party are calling on SNP ministers to guarantee that public funds won’t be used to bail out the industry.
Co-convener Patrick Harvie said the market for coal was declining and Scotland’s future was “clearly in renewables so it is worrying that ministers still think coal has a role to play”.
Mr Ewing co-chairs the Scottish Open Cast Mining Taskforce, which was set up earlier this year in the wake of the closure of Scottish Coal.
The Highland MSP said: “The taskforce have heard lots of evidence about what works well in the field of opencast restoration – and since last October a Restoration Bonds Working Group has been examining the finer details.
“It is clear that every site is different. Compliance monitoring, enforcement and financial assurance systems are all in place, but they need to be made to work more effectively – tailored to each site.
“That is why today I am announcing that the Scottish Government will shortly hold a consultation on more effective regulation.
“More effective regulation is the principal way of improving confidence in the sector and it will keep onside the insurers and banks that underwrite risks on opencast mining.”
Mr Ewing said asking the right questions about policy and practice, about site surveys and restoration guarantees would “pave a way forward” so that future sites are run to the best of standards and progressively and appropriately restored.
He said he would ensure that the consultation reaches out to all of those with an interest in the coalfield communities and the wider coal industry.
The Greens pointed out that earlier this year a judge at the Court of Session in Edinburgh ruled that liquidators for Scottish Coal could ignore environmental and planning obligations that were designed to limit pollution and restore land once a site was mined.
That ruling has been challenged by the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency, Scottish Ministers and local authorities.
The debate comes as East Ayrshire Council doubles its estimate of the funds needed to restore the area’s mines from £62million to £133million.
Green Party co-convener Patrick Harvie said: “Decades of open cast coal mining has caused serious environmental damage across Scotland.
“Former and current mining communities are being locked out of the debate on this crisis – they face being abandoned by an industry failing to honour its moral and legal obligations.
“We cannot allow corporate interests to walk away, and we must not throw public funds at a problem our communities did not create.”
Recommended for you
