<\/p>\n
Patrick Harvie: simple choice <\/p>\n
Scottish Greens will use an opposition debate on Wednesday to force a vote on halting all hyperscale data centre applications, amid a huge wave of speculative proposals across the country.<\/p>\n
The party says its move is prompted by a \u2018lack of action\u201d from the Scottish government.<\/p>\n
Opponents, led by the Greens, claim that if 24 outstanding applications were approved, they would consume 1.5 times as much electricity as the whole of Scotland currently uses at peak times.<\/p>\n
Responding to questions during First Minister\u2019s Questions last week, John Swinney insisted the government had introduced guidelines to ensure community interests were being protected.<\/p>\n
In August, the Government announced that planning authorities would be required to notify ministers of data centre applications within seven days of validation.<\/p>\n
However, his answers did not satisfy Greens co-leader Ross Greer who called for a pause on all applications until Scotland has a clear national strategy, alongside robust criteria for deciding which projects may be acceptable. The demand has been supported by the SNP\u2019s National Council, and some of its own MSPs.<\/p>\n
The Greens want to force the government into taking action and define what constitutes a \u2018green\u2019 data centre.<\/p>\n
Scottish Green MSP Patrick Harvie said: \u201cWe will be forcing the Scottish Government to make a very simple choice. Will they put a pause on the rush to build hyperscale data centres, or will they continue to allow speculative applications to keep piling up with no national strategy in place?<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Scottish Government has had plenty of time to act and till now has chosen not to. Telling councils to notify Ministers when an application arrives is not a strategy, and it does nothing to stop these developments. Very basic questions such as what defines a \u2018green\u2019 data centre have been left unanswered for far too long.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf Ministers believe Scotland should continue accepting hyperscale data centres on this scale, they should say so.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf they recognise that we need a national plan before these projects are allowed to reshape our energy system and our communities, they should back our motion.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis vote, using the Greens\u2019 parliamentary time, is an opportunity for every MSP, regardless of party allegiance, to stand with communities across Scotland and demand a pause while proper national rules are put in place. The Scottish Government should stop sitting on the fence and back our call for action.\u201d<\/p>\n
Daily Business Bulletin:\u00a0Subscribe here for our free morning bulletin of breaking news<\/p>\n
\t #Greens #force #vote #data #centre #moratorium #Daily #Business<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Patrick Harvie: simple choice Scottish Greens will use an opposition debate on Wednesday to force…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[272,456,306,569,21296,3195,6724,21297,17052,140],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15984"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15984"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15984\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}