Legal threat over Peterhead plant fossil fuel ‘lock in’

Climate charity Friends of the Earth Scotland has said it would consider legal action if the Scottish Government approved plans for a new gas burning power station with carbon capture at Peterhead in Aberdeenshire.  

The organisation has consistently objected to the controversial plans since they were lodged four years ago due to the proposed power station’s huge climate emissions and the knowledge that it will ‘lock in’ household energy bills to volatile international energy markets – contributing to the cost-of-living crisis for years to come.  

The charity said they have already consulted with solicitors and, if the planning application is approved, will seek a legal opinion on the lawfulness of the Scottish Government’s decision, its justification and any potential grounds to challenge it in court. 

Climate fears and political mishandling

The climate charity said they are concerned about the detrimental impact this fossil fuel project would have on Scotland’s ability to reach legally binding climate commitments and about government Ministers handling of the planning process.  Friends of the Earth Scotland submitted a Ministerial Code complaint in 2024 about the Government’s mishandling of the application and Ministers’ frequent meetings with the developers whilst refusing to discuss the application with those opposed to it.   

The organisation are alarmed that the Scottish Government’s draft Climate Change Plan assumes the Peterhead project would be built and relies on the carbon capture plant operating to meet climate targets, despite the planning process still ongoing and the fact that the wider carbon capture storage system, on which it is entirely reliant, does not exist.  Carbon capture technology has not be proven to work at the scale proposed on the Peterhead project. 

In 2018, Friends of the Earth Scotland intervened in a judicial review by INEOS which was challenging the Scottish Government’s proposed ban on fracking. INEOS lost this legal challenge.  Climate groups Uplift and Greenpeace also successfully overturned the UK Government’s approval of the Rosebank and Jackdaw oil field developments in early 2025. The Scottish Government recently reduced the time limit for making a legal challenge to onshore energy planning decisions of this nature from 12 weeks to 6 weeks.  

Willing to ‘use every tool available’

Friends of the Earth Scotland’s Head of Campaigns Caroline Rance said:  

“We are willing to consider every tool available to stop this dangerous project which risks locking in expensive energy bills and soaring climate pollution for a generation. If it were approved, we would urgently seek legal advice on the lawfulness of the Government’s decision. It’s clear that plans to burn gas for the next 30 years are incompatible with Scotland’s climate commitments.  

“Rising gas prices risk worsening the cost-of-living crisis for people, so if Ministers approve this project it would leave us at the mercy of rogue states and geopolitics far beyond our control. Scaling up renewables and a mass programme of home insulation could instead ensure people’s energy needs are met in a clean and affordable way.  

“This project is riddled with controversy, from dodgy pollution assessments, to implausible overestimates of carbon capture, and political mishandling of the application process. Too many politicians don’t want to face the truth that carbon capture hasn’t worked and won’t work but are instead using it to make their weak Climate Plan add up.  

“Increasingly, groups who want to protect our environment are being forced to make legal challenges to bad decisions because Governments are rejecting the evidence and instead siding with big business over communities and our climate. The Scottish Government has already made it harder to fight for justice with its undemocratic decision to reduce the time limit for these type of legal challenges.” 

“We hope that we will not have to resort to legal action because Ministers will say no to new gas burning and instead build an energy system run on renewables and in the public interest.” 

Peterhead gas plant controversies

Scottish Ministers have been repeatedly urged to reject the new power station by scores of climate, fuel poverty and development groups, as well as a petition signed by 13,000 people.  

Climate campaigners previously demanded an investigation into breaches of the Ministerial Code in the Government’s mishandling of the application. The breaches included Ministers discussing the planning application with developers, publicly supporting the project and the then First Minister Humza Yousaf appearing in a promotional video for power station developers SSE. 

The UK gas price almost doubled since the US attacks on Iran with Qatar reducing gas output and concerns over fossil fuel transportation in the region, evidencing the risk of continuing Scotland’s reliance on gas and the impact on household energy bills.  

Independent research in 2024 exposed the gaps in the developer’s Environmental Impact Assessment, including a failure to account for the pollution caused by extracting and transporting the fossil gas to be burned on site – a similar failing saw the Rosebank oil field approval overturned last year. The rate of carbon capture predicted by the developers has never been achieved at a comparable plant anywhere in the world before. SSE admits the total lifetime pollution for the project is over 17 million tonnes, a near tripling from its earlier assessment of 6.3 million tonnes. 

The Peterhead plan is wholly dependent on the Acorn carbon capture project, which is in serious trouble after the lead developer Storegga announced it was pulling out and major carbon sources at Grangemouth and Mossmorran were shut down. The Acorn project has not been built, has not started the planning approval process and appears entirely reliant on over £280 million in public subsidy to progress.