Two stories have defined Scotland’s energy industry in the last decade. While renewables have grown to the point where the UK is now a world leader in offshore wind, at the same time oil and gas has been in a persistent state of decline. Production has dwindled. Jobs have disappeared. Investors are leaving. 

These parallel narratives have dominated headlines for many years now but there has been a consistent unwillingness from those in power to go beyond questions about how we produce our energy and examine the fundamental failures of the system as a whole. 

A combination of political short-sightedness and intensive lobbying efforts from the oil and gas industry has meant public discourse around energy has been tightly focused on how we generate power and has almost entirely excluded any serious discussion on who actually captures the benefits. Only last week, as the Scottish Government led another debate on our energy future, the same old lines were rolled out, with very little indication that anyone in Holyrood was willing to bring some genuinely new thinking to the table.

The steady growth of renewables is a success story, but ultimately those who’ve seen the biggest returns are investors and big business. Just like the profits made from fossil fuels, the wealth generated by the renewables industry benefits people who profit........

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