The SNP candidate for Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch has welcomed a new pledge from the First Minister aimed at lowering energy bills and expanding community ownership of onshore wind projects.
John Swinney launched the It’s Scotland’s Energy campaign on Monday.
The event set out a fresh push to ensure that profits from Scotland’s renewable energy stay in Scotland rather than flowing elsewhere.
The campaign points to Norway as an example often cited by independence supporters.
Norway kept its oil wealth in public hands and built a national fund that still supports public good today.
Eilidh Munro, who hopes to succeed Kate Forbes next year, offered a clear endorsement of the plan.
“In country as energy rich as Scotland we should not be seeing perpetually rising bills and, as a result, high levels of fuel poverty, particularly across our Highlands and Islands.
“Westminster has repeatedly shown that it will disregard the needs of Highland households and businesses, refusing to make changes to unfair energy policies that keep our bills higher than they should be.
“We need gas and electricity prices to be decoupled; we need a price cap introduced on heating oil; and we need standing charges to be made fair, not to be paying an extra levy on our monthly bills for England’s new Sizewell C nuclear plant.
“With independence, we can create a Scottish electricity market and an energy policy landscape that is fair, and which brings down bills of households and of businesses by one third, for the long term.
“With power over our energy, we can require that a significant proportion of any onshore renewables development is owned by the local community, so that they benefit directly from hosting said infrastructure.”
Ms Munro said she wants to see practical changes introduced without delay.
“In the meantime, I want to see measures introduced to require undergrounding of cables in specific locations, affordable housing legacy requirements, and moving from prioritising corporate projects to community ownership.
“We need to maximise the benefits that our communities see from our energy resources, whilst ensuring that new developments are appropriate and proportionate for proposed locations.”
