The lightning storm which lit up skies over Fife recently was more intense and long lasting than we’ve seen in a long time and caused an enormous amount of disruption across the country. Unsurprisingly this included Mossmorran and the result was more flaring.

A power dip during the storm caused a process upset at both Shell’s NGL site and ExxonMobil’s Fife Ethylene Plant, leading to elevated flaring smoke and vibrations. Communities around Mossmorran are, sadly, all too used incidents like this which have been going on for many years now.

There is a deep irony in the fact that a fossil fuelled plant, which contributes so much to the worsening climate emergency, can’t cope with the kind of extreme weather that will become more and more common place as the effects of climate change really take hold.

The fight to ensure that our climate doesn’t completely collapse is far from lost, but the fact is it is too late to reverse all the damage already done and extreme weather is certain to become commonplace.

What is deeply worrying is that when I questioned the Environment Secretary Roseanna Cunningham on the flaring at Mossmorran in the Scottish Parliament she refused to acknowledge that the weather caused the outage, despite the fact SEPA had already clarified the issue publicly. It’s emblematic of how low down the priority list the suffering of communities at the hands of Exxon Mobil is. For as long as I’ve been an MSP there has been a pervasive sense that successive Environment Secretaries The lightning storm which lit up skies over Fife recently was more intense and long lasting than we’ve seen in a long time and caused an enormous amount of disruption across the country. Unsurprisingly this included Mossmorran and the result was more flaring.

A power dip during the storm caused a process upset at both Shell’s NGL site and ExxonMobil’s ethylene plant, leading to elevated flaring smoke and vibrations. Communities around Mossmorran are, sadly, all too used incidents like this which have been going on for many years now.

There is a deep irony in the fact that a fossil fuelled plant, which contributes so much to the worsening climate emergency, can’t cope with the kind of extreme weather that will become more and more common place as the effects of climate change really take hold.

The fight to ensure that our climate doesn’t completely collapse is far from lost, but the fact is it is too late to reverse all the damage already done and extreme weather is certain to become commonplace.

What is deeply worrying is that when I questioned the Environment Secretary Roseanna Cunningham on the flaring at Mossmorran in the Scottish Parliament she refused to acknowledge that the weather caused the outage, despite the fact SEPA had already clarified the issue publicly. It’s emblematic of how low down the priority list the suffering of communities at the hands of Exxon Mobil is. For as long as I’ve been an MSP there has been a pervasive sense that successive Environment Secretaries simply don’t grasp the damage Mossmorran is doing.

There is an urgent need for an independent inquiry into the future of the Mossmorran site. There are skills in the workforce there that mustn’t be allowed to go to waste. But that means the Scottish Government needs to have a plan in place to ensure that a just transition to clean sustainable jobs in Fife can take place. ExxonMobil is a relic, but that doesn’t mean their staff on the ground don’t have skills and experience which will prove invaluable to a green future.

Fundamentally the continued operation of Mossmorran is harmful to the people immediately surrounding the area and completely incompatible with meaningful action on the climate emergency. The Scottish Government’s ‘wait and see’ approach is condemning communities to suffer the flaring and does a huge disservice to the workers at the site.

They deserve better than to be strung along endlessly by those who want to maximise gas extraction until, inevitably, the bottom falls out and the workers are left on the scrap heap. Fifers have suffered that fate before. There is no excuse for a repeat.

There is an urgent need for an independent inquiry into the future of the Mossmorran site. There are skills in the workforce there that mustn’t be allowed to go to waste. But that means the Scottish Government needs to have a plan in place to ensure that a just transition to clean sustainable jobs in Fife can take place. ExxonMobil is a relic, but that doesn’t mean their staff on the ground don’t have skills and experience which will prove invaluable to a green future.

Fundamentally the continued operation of Mossmorran is harmful to the people immediately surrounding the area and completely incompatible with meaningful action on the climate emergency. The Scottish Government’s ‘wait and see’ approach is condemning communities to suffer the flaring and does a huge disservice to the workers at the site.

They deserve better than to be strung along endlessly by those who want to maximise gas extraction until, inevitably, the bottom falls out and the workers are left on the scrap heap. Fifers have suffered that fate before. There is no excuse for a repeat.