During the Executive debate on the UK Energy White Paper, Energy Minister Jim Mather addressed issues such as renewables, marine energy, and nuclear waste.

Mather said he was “waiting to see” whether the renewables obligation should be amended to support marine energy and on wind energy said that he would support “the right projects in the right place, with community support.”

He added that there was a need to “bring together voices from across the energy sector to establish a single unifying goal.”

However, following the debate, Labour energy spokesman Iain Gray said that the SNP had failed to make its energy policies clear and accused Mather of avoiding giving answers to the “hard questions”.

He said: “The first time Jim Mather made a speech on energy it was described as a 'gaffe'. This time it is simply a fudge. High on overblown rhetoric about the potential for Renewables, no answers to any of the hard questions.”

Gray also criticised Mather for "shouting" about his party's policy of rejecting applications for nuclear power stations north of the border, but failing to say whether it will start to keep Scotland’s radioactive waste in Scotland.

Gray continued: "At one point Mr Mather said he 'would match the best efforts of Aberdeenshire Council'. If that is the highest aspiration we can expect from those who claim to be the government of Scotland then we are in trouble."

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