The Holyrood government said Scotland had the potential to generate up to 60GW of electricity from renewable sources, 10 times its peak demand.
The Scottish Parliament's vote for the constitutional commission came after the Holyrood government launched its "national conversation", which is examining the case for independence.
Labour - which served two terms as the Holyrood government with the Liberal Democrats - had to engage seriously with the constitutional challenge thrown down by the Nationalists.
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The proposals have received cross-party support in Holyrood and the government is continuing to seek views on its Marriage and Civil Partnership (Scotland) Bill.
They were due to be held on 5 May 2011, but Scottish ministers heeded the advice of the Gould Report and split the Holyrood and local government elections - in order to avoid a repeat of the 2007 count fiasco.
Annabel Goldie, the Scottish Tory leader, claimed the SNP was "riding high" in the polls, not because of support for independence, but because they were not the Labour party - which led Holyrood's coalition government for eight years.
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In his final speech as presiding officer, Mr Fergusson, who has returned to parliament as a Tory MSP, Mr Fergusson said each Scottish election had delivered a first for Holyrood - a coalition government in 1999, a "rainbow parliament" of seven parties in 2003, minority government in 2007 and, now, a likely majority administration.
The UK government is lending Holyrood the power to hold a referendum.
Labour will use an emergency question at Holyrood to ask the Scottish government if they will bring in emergency legislation to stop local councils and housing associations evicting tenants if they run up arrears as a result of housing benefit changes.
Will they blame the Westminster government, which gives Holyrood its cash and which would argue that cutting the deficit is urgent?
The proposal, to be contained in a Scottish government bill to go before Holyrood, comes ahead of a separate piece of legislation on the arrangements to hold the referendum itself.
Mr Salmond said he agreed with the report's findings, including that control over the Holyrood elections could be transferred from the UK Government to ministers in Edinburgh, after the May polls resulted in more than 140, 000 spoilt votes.
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If the experience of the eurozone is any guide (and it should be), the Treasury and the Bank of England would be looking for similar constraints on Holyrood's budget powers as the German government wants from its smaller eurozone partners.
Mr Swinney said the SNP, which is seeking a second term in government after next May's Holyrood election, had worked hard to support families and businesses during the recession, with measures including a council tax freeze and bonus scheme for small firms.
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Yes in that the UK government's choreography involves consent from Holyrood prior to a final Westminster decision.
Prime Minister David Cameron has said he is open to looking at further devolution to Holyrood but only after a no vote in the Scottish government's independence referendum.
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The UK government has agreed to grant limited powers to Holyrood to hold a legally binding referendum through a Section 30 order, which was laid at the Scottish Parliament last week.
The legislation implements most of the recommendations of the Calman Commission into the powers of the Scottish government, including the central proposal to give Holyrood more power over income tax rates.
Politicians from Labour and the SNP united to oppose UK government plans for a referendum on the same day as the Holyrood elections.
Its part-time Scottish secretary appears unable to counter Alex Salmond, the wily nationalist leader of the Scottish government, who aims to drive a wedge between Westminster and Holyrood.
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The bill has won cross-party support at Holyrood, although the parliament's justice committee earlier warned the Scottish Government may have to pay out millions following claims from employees who worked in former naval shipyards.
Holyrood's audit committee said there must be more transparency on payments to government and other public sector workers.
Opposition parties at Holyrood criticised the appointment, as Europe is a matter reserved to the UK government.
Mr Swinney also said he had feared opposition parties at Holyrood would use the tram issue to bring down the newly-elected SNP government in 2007.
At Holyrood, the Scottish Conservatives have also come under pressure from Labour and the SNP government, who have used controversial UK government welfare reforms and spending cuts to portray the Tories as uncaring.
Yet the more recent study, from the Scottish government says that transferring more than 6% of total tax revenue to Holyrood (that's the share of revenue from corporation tax at present) would only raise income by a total of 1.4% after 20 years, and that's with a cut in the rate.
Scottish Labour leader Iain Gray called on the UK government to to ensure the Calman recommendations were passed before next year's Holyrood election.
In these days of mutual respect, the UK Government has promised that the Scotland Bill will not finally pass Westminster until it has been endorsed by Holyrood in a further Legislative Consent Motion, due to be tabled before the end of the year.
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