IT HAS been 18 months since I wrote about the “unjust transition” in Scotland as the North Sea moves from fossil fuels to renewables. A lot has happened, especially in the political sphere, with a Tory government trounced to be replaced by a Labour government with a huge majority.

An opportunity you’d think for a reset, benefitting both workers and the country. But sadly, and shamefully, the unjust transition continues unabated and arguably has worsened.

Despite unequivocal commitments made by Labour in the election, Grangemouth refinery has shut, leaving Scotland as the only major oil-producing nation without a refinery capacity. Despite still being in the top 25 oil-producing nations, Scotland now joins nations such as New Zealand, Trinidad and Tobago and the Republic of Congo, all of which produce significantly less oil, in being unable to refine its own product.

The devastation wreaked upon the Forth Valley area now mirrors that already being suffered in Aberdeen and the north-east. As many have quipped, some nations discover oil and make the desert bloom, while Scotland has discovered oil and seen many places turned into industrial deserts.

It’s economic, energy security and environmental madness. The increase in supertankers ploughing in and out, carrying crude and refined oil, means that what they splurge out will dwarf what once was a well-monitored and environmentally efficient site.

It’s all a microcosm of the wider, unjust transition, as pledges were made of financial support, allowing for a new renewables start at the site. As with promises of salvation of the old economy, commitments to the new one have proved ephemeral.

Despite Rachel Reeves and Keir Starmer’s championing the continued North Sea exploitation as the bedrock of the British economy, workers, communities and the country await Labour’s pledged funds.

If all that’s absurd, what’s happening in the renewables sector, and the supposed new economy, is positively perverse. It was Boris Johnson who used the phrase “the Saudi Arabia of wind,” but it’s been echoed by Starmer and Ed Miliband. GB Energy has been set up, and ministerial statements and photo calls aplenty have taken place.

Johnson was right in some ways, as the opportunities are immense. Fixed offshore wind is already operating, and floating wind production is about to commence. Of the former, one site alone at Berwick Bank, situated at the mouth of the River Forth, will be capable of producing energy for some 2.8 million households, which is more households than Scotland contains.

Floating wind is located further out in the seas but is capable of producing even greater energy. It’s only just coming into operation, but with next-generation turbine blades being 300 metres in span, what it offers is immense and game-changing. Putting it in some context, the height of the Eiffel Tower is 330 metres.

All that power from both fixed and floating offshore wind changes the dynamics of renewables in Scotland. At the present moment, a land grab is ongoing as developers buy farms and sites for onshore wind farms.

It is reminiscent of decades ago when the wealthy and tax avoiders were planting trees and buying forests in Scotland. Yet there’s no need for these additional onshore windfarms as Scotland already, even before Berwick Bank or any other offshore site comes on stream, produces more energy than she requires.

Nor more importantly is there currently grid capacity to move it elsewhere in Britain. The upgrading of grid infrastructure isn’t keeping pace with the actions of the get-rich-quick brigade, and no wonder, as they get constraint payments. That’s the terminology for the absurdity that they get paid more for not turning on their turbines than for doing so. It’s paid out when the grid cannot take their energy, leaving the owners laughing all the way to the bank.

No wonder huge swathes of Scotland are up in arms in opposing further onshore development, as they’re paying the environmental price yet getting no economic benefit. Able to see the turbines turning on the hills behind and off the shores in front of them, yet unable to turn on their heating.

Offshore changes the dynamic in terms of energy production, but the plight of workers, communities and the country largely remains the same. 18 months ago, I wrote of the absurdity of the Neart Na Gaoithe windfarm sited in the River Forth between Fife and East Lothian.

The Gaelic name is a clue as to ownership: it’s Irish, not Scottish Gaelic, as it is jointly owned by EDF, the French state energy company and ESB, the Irish state electricity board. Profits are going abroad with neither work nor contracts coming locally. British crews on ships operating are being replaced by foreign crews, with employment legislation not applying outside territorial waters.

Compounding that absurdity is the Inch Cape wind farm just north of Neart N Gaoithe. It’s the largest development currently under construction, though it will be superseded by others. It’s again partly owned by ESB, but this time in partnership with Red Rock from China. That’s partly owned by the Chinese government, though it seems Red Rock are looking to sell up. Who knows who’ll take over their share, maybe the Swedish, Norwegian, UAE, or Japanese state companies, all of who are already operating in the sector.

Moving from absurdity to perversity, there’s what’s happening in floating offshore development, which, as we’ve seen, can be game-changing in terms of energy production. There, Greenvolt, owned by the Japanese, is soon to go out to tender for the turbines and construction, with fears that the whole kit and kaboodle might be brought in from China, shipped across the seas and assembled off our shores. What benefit will that offer workers and the community — never mind the country?

We cannot allow renewables to go the way of oil with the absurdity of corporates benefiting and workers and communities paying the price. Nor compound it with the perversity of state energy companies from everywhere but our own having a stake.