In your briefing today:

📣 Donald Trump delivered the longest State of the Union address in history overnight, and cycled through “sales mode” on the US economy, a heavy dose of patriotism, and a “dark turn” on his political opponents.

His upbeat assessment of his progress comes at a point when American voters have soured on his policies and tactics: observers noted that, in response, this was a relatively disciplined performance - despite the extraordinary duration. (AP)

📣 There is “real concern” about the credibility of Scotland’s net zero plans, according to the UK’s energy watchdog.

Nigel Topping, the chair of the UK Climate Change Committee, said there are “flashing amber lights” about the quality and seriousness of some of the Scottish government’s medium- and long-term proposals to reach net zero by 2045.

Areas of greatest concern included plans to decarbonise the heating of buildings using heat pumps, the plans’ heavy reliance on carbon capture and storage, and unproven technologies to remove CO2 from the atmosphere.

The head of Oxfam Scotland told the Guardian that “Scotland’s approach is too reliant on science fiction.”

“Gillian Martin, the Scottish net zero secretary, sidestepped all the CCC’s criticisms in her response to its report,” the title reports, “but said it would use the committee’s ‘feedback’ to help produce the government’s final climate crisis action plan.” (Guardian)

📣 The Scottish Government published a large dossier of documents relating to an ethics investigation into Nicola Sturgeon, after a long battle with Scotland’s information commissioner, David Hamilton. He’d threatened legal action to force the disclosure: thousands of pages of sometimes heavily-redacted files finally emerged yesterday.

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📣 Scotland’s top law officer told John Swinney details of the charge against former SNP chief executive Peter Murrell nearly a year ago, newly-released documents show. It was previously thought details were only shared last month. (BBC)

📣 MSPs have voted down a plan that would have let voters remove them from office. The recall powers would have allowed MSPs to be sacked by voters if they were suspended from Holyrood for at least 10 days, or sentenced to less than a year in jail. (BBC)

📣 St Andrews University has elected a woman as chancellor for the first time in its 600-year history. Dame Anne Pringle, a former British ambassador to Moscow, said the appointment was “the honour of my life”. (Scotsman)

📣 The Scottish Government has rejected plans for a Flamingo Land resort at Loch Lomond, bringing a long-running saga to an end. (STV)

📣 Lord Mandelson’s lawyers say he was arrested on Monday because of rumours he was a flight risk. They said there was “absolutely no truth” to the suggestion, made to police, that he was planning to leave the UK for the British Virgin Islands. (BBC)

📣 UK energy prices are to fall: regulator Ofgem says the energy price cap will be cut by 7% in April, which means the average UK dual fuel bill will fall to £1,641, down from £1,758. (Sky News)

📣 An adviser to Chancellor Rachel Reeves has said “we don’t need any more restaurants” and urged investment in fast-growing technology companies instead. (Scotsman)

📣 Jeffrey Epstein may have played a role in Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s appointment as a UK trade envoy, an MP has claimed. (Independent)

📣 The NHS has secured new supplies of bone cement: joint surgery can resume. (BBC)

⚽️ Dundee United and Aberdeen battled out a goalless draw at Tannadice to dent both their chances of making the Championship group. Aberdeen’s Kevin Nisbet missed a sitter, and United hit the post, but both teams struggled with United’s threadbare pitch. (BBC report & highlights)

⚽️ Celtic’s appeal against Austin Trusty’s red card at the weekend has been thrown out: the defender will miss three games, sparking a furious response from the Parkhead club about the state of Scottish VAR. (Scotsman)

🗣️ Is it over for wave energy? As Vicky Allan notes, “All that vast, rolling energy rolling crashing off our shores, or anywhere else, […] to be given up”? With Scottish Government funding for Wave Energy Scotland being cut, the assumption appears to be yes - it’s likely to be lost, unless the Scottish Greens - among others - can urge a rethink.

There’s already a cluster of expertise in Orkney, they point out, and Green councillor Kristopher Leask insists to Allan that “wave energy has the potential to provide jobs, supply chain development, and population growth in Orkney and Northern Scotland.

“The Scottish Government cannot give up on this ambition which we have seen delivered in Orkney so successfully.”

Except… as Allan notes, wave power is a tricky one to master, and there are a few significant business failures along the way. Not mentioned in the article is the cost of the energy it produces, which is much higher than other renewable sources (some experts say that cost will fall, however, in time).

Unanswered, here, is the question of why, if private money prefers to invest in other forms of energy, public money should take on the risk. (Herald £)

🗣️At the Scotsman, Jeremy Grant also sounds the alarm about Scotland’s marine energy ambitions. He does a good job of delving into some of the “tricky engineering and high up-front costs” of the technology.

“The supply chain is patchy. Investors have committed, then lost faith with each cycle as the machines haven’t delivered. Meanwhile, the emergence roughly 15 years ago of cheaper forms of renewable power in the form of offshore wind undercut the investment case for wave and tidal.

“The Scottish government says its decision on WES – into which it has ploughed £70 million to date - was made ‘in the context of an agreement for the company being self-sustaining beyond a certain point” and amid a ‘challenging fiscal envelope’.”

Grant reports there are some encouraging signs - private funding, turbines already working away beneath the waves in the Pentland Firth and elsewhere, orders abroad.

But obstacles remain: the cost of that energy could push UK electricity prices up even higher if the technology were rolled out at scale, while governments might favour more proven technologies - especially wind - to meet near-term environmental targets. (The Scotsman £)

🗣️ Back at the Herald, Alan Simpson thinks the game is up. Pointing to a project in Norway he visited 20 years ago, backed by ScottishPower and the Norwegian state oil company, Statoil, he recalls prototypes being sunk around Islay and excitement about the potential. It came to nothing.

“If,” he asks, “two energy giants cannot make tidal power commercially viable, then who can?

“Ministers may simply have decided that there was little hope of a breakthrough at WES so maybe it's time to focus on other things.

“And who can really blame them for taking that attitude - taxpayers cannot foot the bill for possibilities forever.” (The Herald £)

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