Open Cast Mining in Scotland, Coaling and Restoring

As an amendment to motion S4M-07712 in the name of Fergus Ewing (Open Cast Mining in Scotland, Coaling and Restoring), leave out from "contribution" to end and insert "environmental destruction caused by the open cast coal mining industry in Scotland; notes that the costs of restoring current and former open cast sites far exceed the sums available through restoration bonds; notes that the market for coal mined in Scotland is declining as renewable technologies are adopted and emissions restrictions are introduced; believes that an independent inquiry is needed into the regulation of this industry and that no public money should be spent further subsidising an unsustainable industry with a record of evading its responsibilities; considers that a low-carbon economy can only be one that reduces and ultimately ends its economic reliance on fossil fuels, rather than seeking to exploit all possible sources, and calls on the Scottish Government to call an immediate halt to all new open cast coal developments and to ensure that the industry fulfils its legal and moral obligation to society by bearing the full cost of the necessary environmental restoration."