Taking the Wind out of Sctoland’s Sails
Ever since Donald Trump descended an escalator to the tune of Neil Young’s “Rockin’ in the Free World” to announce his presidential candidacy, the real estate tycoon’s campaign has been riddled with controversy. From calling Mexican immigrants rapists to insinuating that Megyn Kelly was menstruating during the GOP debate, the brash Trump has clearly been unafraid to speak his mind. As he continues to spout off along the campaign trail, he is also stirring the pot across the pond in Scotland.
In 2011, the Scottish government approved a proposal to build the European Offshore Wind Deployment Centre (EOWDC), an 11 turbine large windfarm off of Scotland’s northern coast near the village of Balmedie. Following the government’s approval, Trump, whose Trump International Golf Links is located two miles from the windfarm’s proposed site, filed a series of lawsuits against the Scots, contending that the “ugly wind turbines” would ruin the views from his golf course. In June 2015, an Edinburgh court rejected Trump’s most recent legal challenge, in which he claimed that the Scottish government illegally approved the windfarm by not holding a public inquiry.
Following the ruling, Patrick Harvie, a member of Scottish Parliament, told BBC that, “we cannot allow Trump’s inflated ego to delay our renewables any longer.” Yet it’s not just Trump’s hubris that Scottish wind energy advocates have to worry about. The Conservative Party currently in control of British Parliament (which oversees Scotland’s Parliament) is introducing misguided policies that threaten the future of renewable energy in Scotland and the UK at large.
After their victory in the recent UK general parliamentary election, the Conservatives announced that they would cut a subsidy to onshore windfarms in 2016. UK Secretary of Energy and Climate Change Amber Rudd defended the cut as a necessary measure to deliver on her party’s campaign manifesto promise to both “halt the spread of subsidized onshore wind farms” and “meet our climate change commitments, cutting carbon emissions as cheaply as possible, to save you money.” These two goals, however, are contradictory. Onshore wind is the cheapest form of renewable energy available in the UK. According to an October 2014 EU report, wind energy is significantly cheaper than gas or coal per megawatt hour. In 2014, 5,061 onshore UK turbines supplied the nation with nearly 6 percent of its total electricity needs. Although not a panacea, onshore wind can provide cheap renewable energy. While the introduced cuts will not affect the development of offshore wind farms, such as the EOWDC, offshore wind is nearly twice as costly as onshore wind.
What’s driving the Conservatives’ environmental policy? Politics. In the UK, attitudes toward wind energy divide along ideological lines; those on the left favor it, and those on the right oppose it. Like Trump, some Conservatives object to the mere look of wind turbines. Specifically, Conservatives representing rural constituencies, where turbines are often built, have fought against investing in wind energy. One Conservative member of UK Parliament, Chris Heaton-Harris, runs Together Against Wind, an organization that fights against the construction of wind turbines. The organization’s website claims that “every new wind farm proposal is met by strong local opposition,” but in reality windfarms have garnered popular national support in the UK. A 2014 study found that wind was the most popular source of energy among UK citizens and that nearly half of those surveyed said they would support the construction of an onshore windfarm within 5 miles of their home. Only 19 percent of respondents said that fracking— an energy policy actively supported by the Conservatives—would be locally supported. By cutting subsidies to onshore wind farms, the Conservatives are going against public opinion, while also creating an unsound energy policy.
Though the onshore wind subsidy elimination has ramifications for the entire UK, the cut will disproportionately affect Scotland, where over 70 percent of the UK’s wind turbines are located. The Scottish Nationalist Party (SNP), a left-wing party that holds a majority in Scottish Parliament, has already called for the Conservatives to fall back on the planned subsidy cut. In its 2015 campaign manifesto, the SNP, a party that constantly butts heads with the Conservatives, promised to lead Scotland to 100 percent renewable electricity generation by 2020—a goal that is now threatened. Moreover, a June 2015 report published by the EU reported that the UK “may miss” its legally binding target of generating 20 percent of its energy from renewables.
As for “The Donald”? He has pledged to continue the fight against the construction of the EOWDC. And like the Conservatives, Trump’s opposition to the turbines lacks any basis in environmental science. When asked during an appearance before Scottish Parliament to provide evidence in his case against wind turbines, Trump responded, “I am the evidence.”