Tale of two nations

Both Scotland and Wales now have their own Governments, and extremely progressive and radical energy policies have been a defining feature of devolution in both countries. This week there have been announcements in both nations about the future of renewable energy, but while Scotland advances towards a low-carbon future, Wales will be held back from achieving the same thing because of new plans by Labour at Westminster to effectively privatise major planning decisions in Wales.

In Wales, Environment Minister Jane Davidson has this week scaled up our already ambitious plans for renewable energy. It is a great statement of intent from an administration that has the support of Welsh Ramblings, but it is unfortunately an ambition that is ultimately beyond the remit of the weak devolution settlement we have. Shamefully, Westminster has deliberately excluded planning permissions for energy installations greater than 50 MW from the Welsh devolution settlement- similar to how they have excluded Welsh people from controlling their own water and other natural resources. This is very reminiscent of the age of imperialism where the colonial power retains control over the subsumed nation's resources, and exploits them. But that digression aside, the Scottish settlement devolves all energy planning to Holyrood. Frankly, this is our fault for not presenting a strong enough national movement, whereas in Scotland the British Government felt threatened enough to recognise in a declassified report that an independent Scotland would have become one of the strongest economies in Europe.

Previously, the Welsh Government had argued that Wales has enough potential to create all of its energy from renewable sources, in the very forward-thinking Renewable Energy Route Map. Despite the positive outcome, the Route Map was based entirely on factors beyond the Welsh Government's control becoming reality such as a Severn tidal energy project (final decision with Westminster), and the extremely questionable Prenergy Biomass Plant at Port Talbot.

Jane Davidson has now stated that in the next 10 to 15 years alone there is potential or £50bn worth of renewable energy projects in Wales, with the eventual reality that Wales could produce twice as much of its energy needs from renewables. We could become a major European exporter of renewable energy. Jane Davidson is a Labour Minister and does not support Wales becoming an independent state as far as we know, but surely a Wales that generated such a windfall of clean energy could sustain its economic needs by selling that energy to an increasingly hungry global market?

Because Wales does not have the planning and fiscal powers to develop a Welsh clean energy industry, our progress will be hampered. Westminster's priorities will take precedence, and on current form that is not good news for Welsh communities, in terms of both Labour and the Tories being indistinguishable on supporting a Severn Barrage (ignoring and undermining the alternatives) and "fake renewables" like the huge biomass plant at Port Talbot. For a nation that already generates more energy than we use, we should be innovating our energy sources much more so that we can create high-quality jobs and supply-side companies, rather than simply producing cheap energy for the needs of England.

An unhealthy side-note is the Labour Westminster Government's rush to create a new undemocratic quango (the Infrastructure Planning Commission) to control decisions over energy, including decisions in Wales. They will abolish public enquiries into major planning decisions and replace them with limited hearings. There is something sinister about these plans and the fact they will be imposed on Wales is a sad indictment of the generations of politicians that have failed us. Though this has become something of a trending topic amongst nationalists who have traditionally concerned themselves with keeping Westminster's hands of our resources, it's Friends of the Earth who will be mounting a legal challenge against these neo-liberal plans. It is obvious that New Labour are taking planning decisions away from elected politicians, so that the whims of the market can decide them. For a so-called socialist party to be pushing this through is hideously ironic. The SNP and Plaid Cymru are clearly the ones actually upholding socialist principles in this case, as there are no such plans to introduce an IPC in Scotland.

The alternative is clear. In Scotland, whose Government contrastingly has much more powers over energy than we do, First Minister Alex Salmond is talking about parts of his country being "the Saudi Arabia of renewable energy", presumably without the widespread oppression of women! In seriousness, it is an exceptional vision, especially when you consider the fact that Scottish nationalism has traditionally been based on demands around oil. Though Scotland should of course still get control of its own oil, the SNP government is positioning their country as the green engine of Europe. This is an incredibly dynamic vision and one we could quite easily emulate. Our wind and wave energy potential offshore is hugely significant and could help save the planet and lead to a more prosperous and fairer future. Yet we lack both the fiscal/regulatory and energy powers. But there's nothing to say we can't campaign to get those levers in the future.

We must start making an economic case for independence as a long-term aspiration, ready to argue it in ten or fifteen years' time when these energy projects come online. To allow the colonial-style exploitation of our resources without getting any direct benefit from them would be a betrayal of our people. On the bright side, it does look like Wales will eventually become viable as an independent nation, in terms of being prepared for the low-carbon future.