An invitation to Nicola Sturgeon to attend a demonstration on Saturday by advocates against underground coal gasification in the Forth (UCG) is truly throwing down the gauntlet. The anti-fracking groups behind this event – Hands Over Our Forth (HOOF) and SMAUG (SNP-Members-Against-Unconventional-Oil-and-Gas) – are keen for Sturgeon to join them so that she can hear their views on what they consider to be a highly risky method of extraction. UCG is a process by which underground coal seams are flushed with oxygen, and then set alight, and gas piped to the mainland. As the Herald has reported, potential side effects include contamination of water supplies, which endangers the food chain, from farms to fishing. All this, before one also considers the impact on the country’s already lacklustre record on reducing carbon emissions.

The recent creation of SMAUG, named for Tolkien’s dragon, which was disturbed by thieving dwarves in search of underground treasure, could prove divisive for the ever-evolving SNP. Indeed, some predict the party might fracture under the weight of disagreement raised by this increasingly contentious subject. As the number of SNP members voicing opposition to UCG grows, questions are also being asked about the extent to which new members are pulling the party towards the left on this metaphorically as well as literally burning environmental issue.

Sturgeon would do well, then, to accept this invitation. As anti-UCG campaigners point out, the government has allowed delegates from the UCG industry to bend its ear on the subject. While the First Minister has stated that “There will be no fracking in Scotland until the Government and the Parliament are in receipt of all the relevant and necessary information to take an evidence-based decision,” it is widely suspected that senior SNP ministers look favourably on UCG. This certainly would come as no great surprise, given that ownership of Scotland’s oil – indeed, territorial pride in our rich reserves – has for many years been at the heart of the SNP’s political vision.

It shows how worryingly ambiguous the government’s position has become that anti-UCG campaigners plan to lobby ministers at the Party Conference next week. Delegates will be asked to consider a motion that calls for them to extend the two-year freeze on fracking to cover UCG. To date, the government has been evasive on its reasons for not extending the moratorium, beyond saying it does not have the power to do this, energy being a reserved issue. Yet it would appear that there are, in fact, ways in which it could get around this under planning regulations. Thus, its position begins to look at best slippery, at worst deliberately misleading.

Until the full scientific, environmental and economic implications of UCG are, the SNP cannot be faulted for not coming to a hasty or partially informed decision. Less impressive, however, is its obvious unwillingness to set out a timetable for the various stages of its deliberations. Increasingly it looks as if it is protecting itself from the damaging consequences of a controversial, or woefully undecided stance ahead of next year’s Holyrood elections. Before its conference begins, Nicola Sturgeon would do well to ask whether she has more to lose by appearing sly and sleekit than by honestly and openly setting out her intentions, or indeed her uncertainties. The least she can do is explain her reasoning, no matter how unpopular that might – or might not – prove to be.