THE Scottish Greens said yesterday that the North Sea oil industry should be nationalised to break Scotland’s dependence on “distant multinationals and neoliberal forces.”

A report commissioned by the Scottish Green Party calls for a move away from “energy colonialism to energy democracy.”

The strategy would abandon tax cuts for oil companies and introduce measures to empower local communities by having publicly owned renewable energy.

He also calls for taking the Grangemouth oil refinery into public ownership.

Scottish Green MSP Alison Johnson said job insecurity caused by the “volatile price” and “finite nature” of the fossil-fuel industry “has devastating consequences for families and communities.”

“The only credible and responsible course of action is a managed transition towards sustainable sectors.”

According to the report, nationalising the oil industry and supporting green energy would create up to 40,000 new jobs.

The proposal comes at a time when North Sea oil companies are using falling oil prices as an excuse to attack workers’ rights and reduce labour costs.

Environmental group WWF Scotland director Lang Banks said that the country would continue to rely on fossil fuels for many years to come, but that it was important to begin “weaning ourselves off” them.

Mr Banks said that the transition “harnesses the people and skills currently employed in fossil-fuel industries and creates new opportunities in less-polluting alternatives.”