Jeremy Hunt has been accused of “shafting Scotland” after failing to announce any funds in his Budget for a major carbon capture scheme in the north east.
SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn said the Acorn Scottish cluster project in Peterhead had suffered a decade of broken funding promises from Westminster.
Addressing MPs yesterday, the Chancellor revealed £20 billion in new support for Carbon Capture Usage and Storage (CCUS) technology across the UK.
But he gave no mention of the Acorn cluster, based at St Fergus gas terminal in Aberdeenshire.
Insiders had been optimistic that Hunt would green-light cash for the scheme this week after the Scottish CCUS site was snubbed for UK Government funding two years ago, in favour of hubs in England.
In his statement to MPs, however, the Tory finance chief suggested the Scottish site may be sidelined again for a facility in Wales.
CCUS technology involves capturing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere from fossil fuels, then either using the polluting gas for other functions or else injecting it back into the ground, such as into empty North Sea oil and gas fields.
The Acorn scheme proposes using existing pipelines to transfer greenhouse gases north, such as from Ineos’ Grangemouth refinery.
Nats Westminster chief Flynn hit out: "After a decade of broken promises, it's utterly shameful that the Tory government is shafting Scotland yet again by failing to announce any funding for the Acorn project and Scottish carbon capture at the Budget.
"UK government ministers promised Scotland would get £1billion of CCUS investment during the 2014 independence referendum, only to break that promise and withdraw the funding within weeks of the vote.
"It beggars belief that the Tories are still refusing to hand over the money almost ten years later - and shows how little they care about jobs and investment in the north east.”
Addressing MPs, Hunt said cash for carbon capture was part of a plan to meet the UK’s climate commitments and provide energy security against “autocrats” like Vladimir Putin.
The Chancellor said: "I am allocating up to £20billion of support for the early development of CCUS, starting with projects from our East Coast to Merseyside to North Wales - paving the way for CCUS everywhere across the UK as we approach 2050.
“This will support up to 50,000 jobs, attract private sector investment and help capture 20-30 million tonnes of CO2 per year by 2030."
While the Scottish Cluster wasn’t mentioned, UK Government budget documents said other projects could benefit from an “expansion” of the current funding process expected later this year.
Ryan Crighton, from Aberdeen and Grampian Chamber of Commerce, said: “The Acorn Project on the Buchan coast must be one of the beneficiaries of this additional investment if we are to transform our region into the net zero capital of Europe.”
Environmental groups have long criticised CCUS technology as a “dangerous distraction” from the push to clean energy.
Friends of the Earth Scotland said yesterday the new funding was a “massive handout” to polluting oil companies.
A UK Government source said: "We recognise the potential benefits of the Scottish cluster and the role it could play in the decarbonisation of Scotland.
"More than £40million has been allocated to its development by government in recent years. The process to select the next round of carbon capture clusters will begin shortly and we expect Acorn to be a strong contender."
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