{"id":9,"date":"2006-04-30T17:37:00","date_gmt":"2006-04-30T17:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.scubadog.co.uk\/?p=9"},"modified":"2012-05-24T14:34:05","modified_gmt":"2012-05-24T14:34:05","slug":"9","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.scubadog.co.uk\/?p=9","title":{"rendered":"A public consultation has been launched to examine controversial proposals to transfer large quantities of oil between ships in the Firth of Forth"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>><a href=\"http:\/\/news.bbc.co.uk\/1\/hi\/scotland\/4452850.stm\">BBC NEWS | Scotland | Views wanted on oil transfer plan<\/a>: &#8220;A public consultation has been launched to examine controversial proposals to transfer large quantities of oil between ships in the Firth of Forth.<\/p>\n<p>Forth Ports is in favour of the plan to transfer Russian oil to tankers, four miles off the Fife coast, at rates of up to 3,000 tonnes per hour.<\/p>\n<p>But Fife Council believes it could pose a major hazard.<\/p>\n<p>UK Transport Secretary Alistair Darling said the consultation would assess the implications for nature conservation.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Darling pointed out that such transfers already take place at Scapa Flow in Orkney, Sullom Voe in Shetland and at the Nigg oil terminal in the Cromarty Firth.<\/p>\n<p>They are lawful and do not need approval by the transport secretary.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s about consulting on a plan to deal with an oil spill, not about questioning whether this proposal should go ahead in the first place<br \/>Mark Ruskell<br \/>Scottish Greens<\/p>\n<p>However, the harbour authority must get his go-ahead for its oil spill contingency plans.<\/p>\n<p>It is understood Mr Darling believes the consultation has been inadequate so far and will ask for views on the contingency plans.<\/p>\n<p>Sunderland company Melbourne Marine Services (MMS) wants to carry out the transfers in the Forth about four miles off Methil.<\/p>\n<p>The oil would be switched to vessels bound for China or eastern Europe.<\/p>\n<p>Oil transfer<\/p>\n<p>Fife Council has described the proposal as one of the most serious threats ever faced by the area.<\/p>\n<p>Green Mid-Scotland and Fife MSP Mark Ruskell branded the consultation a smokescreen, claiming the &#8216;ludicrous&#8217; oil transfer plan would threaten the economy and environment around the Forth.<\/p>\n<p>He said: &#8216;This consultation assumes that ship-to-ship oil transfer will go ahead in the Firth of Forth. It&#8217;s about consulting on a plan to deal with an oil spill, not about questioning whether this proposal should go ahead in the first place.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;European law dictates that we must put the protection of the sensitiv&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>>BBC NEWS | Scotland | Views wanted on oil transfer plan: &#8220;A public consultation has been launched to examine controversial proposals to transfer large quantities of oil between ships in the Firth of Forth. Forth Ports is in favour of &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/news.scubadog.co.uk\/?p=9\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.scubadog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.scubadog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.scubadog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.scubadog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.scubadog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.scubadog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46,"href":"https:\/\/news.scubadog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9\/revisions\/46"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.scubadog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.scubadog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.scubadog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}