Regan will use environmental tax to fund citizen owned energy company

In the SNP leadership election, Ash Regan MSP set out her ideas about an energy plan for Scotland using environmental tax to transition to an energy company owned by the people.

Regan would like to use half of the revenue raised by the carrier bag charge of 10p for each bag sold by shops, which is currently given to charity, to be used instead as seed investment in an energy company. Backing would also come from the Scottish National Investment Bank.

50% of the carrier bag charge would be diverted to the new energy company, with the remaining 50% staying with the business for continued donation to a registered charity. In the event the company wanted to support the National Energy Company, 100% could be sent to the investment fund. 

Ash Regan said: “We need to be bold and ambitious, we need to look at tackling generation, transmission and supply of energy. We have the resources, we have the infrastructure, we need to make it deliver to the people of Scotland in an affordable manner. For far too long large corporations have profited from Scotland’s vast natural resources, and we ensure that those resources are used to the greatest benefit to the people of Scotland. 

The Carrier Bag Charge can be used to fund the initial setup of the new National Energy Company. This will provide a steady and reliable income stream to get the project setup over the next few years when it can come online and produce for the people of Scotland. In these tough economic times we must be ambitious with making our resources and economy work hard”.