Gillian Mackay says Scottish Greens back ending North Sea drilling
Scottish Greens co-leader Gillian Mackay said new oil and gas fields will do nothing to lower bills and will only speed up the climate crisis. She said her party is the only one prepared to tell the truth about ending new drilling in the North Sea, sharpening the divide over Scotland’s oil and gas future.
Gillian Mackay and North Sea drilling
Mackay said, “New oil and gas fields will do nothing to lower bills and will only fast-track the climate crisis.” She added, “We all need to be honest about that, but the Scottish Greens are the only party prepared to tell the truth. The SNP and Labour are pretending that new drilling is compatible with climate action, while the Tories and Reform are actively wanting to scrap Scotland's climate laws.”
She also said, “We cannot drill our way out of the climate crisis, and ignoring the devastating consequences will only make things worse.” The Scottish Greens want to stop drilling and push towards renewable energies, making that position central to their response after BP reported £2.4bn in profits.
Offshore Energies UK Response
Offshore Energies UK urged parties to come together and back an all-energy approach, including oil and gas, while Scotland builds out its renewables. That puts the industry’s position directly against Mackay’s call to end new drilling and tighten the windfall tax by removing loopholes after BP’s profits.
Douglas Lumsden on Greens
Scottish Conservative energy spokesman Douglas Lumsden rejected the Greens’ position. He said, “Scots already know the Greens would destroy every last job in oil and gas today, if they could. They’d turn the North Sea taps off and then blame the economic shockwave on Westminster, like they did with Grangemouth.”
Lumsden also said, “The Scottish Conservatives are the only party in the Scottish Parliament to stand fully behind tens of thousands of Scots working in the North Sea.”
That leaves the argument over North Sea drilling fixed on two competing claims: the Greens say new fields will not lower bills, while their opponents say shutting them would put jobs and the wider economy at risk. The next political test is whether parties hold to those positions as pressure grows over how Scotland balances oil, gas and renewables.
