A coalition of cranes, planes and fossil fuels

Months have passed since it was revealed that Konrad Mizzi and Keith Schembri had opened a shell company in Panama, in whose bank account a minimum of one million dollars was to be deposited, and we are still none the wiser as to why exactly these two chose a secretive, tax evading jurisdiction for their company.

Neither do we know from where the minimum of one million dollars was to come from. When Trump was asked about his tax evading antics, he just brushed them off by saying that he is a ‘good businessman’. So called ‘good businessmen’ and good governance are like oil and water. They don’t mix. If Konrad Mizzi and Keith Schembri do not like their salaries and perks as Minister and Head of Secretariat (the new pompous title is ‘Chief of Staff’), then they should not have got involved with the fake Joseph-centred ‘moviment’ at all.

Fossil fuels

This week we had Marlene Farrugia, a self-declared ‘environmentalist’ independent MP riling against solar farms on Facebook. At the same time the government completely ruled out wind energy from the revised renewable energy strategy. Now, as any real ecologist knows, climate change is real and hence a drastic reduction in the use of fossil fuels is necessary. What must be ascertained is that solar farms are not used as an excuse for other kinds of development, that the quarries used for this purpose are not cemented over and that all interventions are reversible.

Otherwise solar farms, biomass, offshore wind, floating PVs and also carefully planned onland wind turbines will be necessary for a zero-carbon future. Prices of technology change, and what may be expensive today might become viable in the future. Investment in the strengthening of the electricity distribution system is also an absolute must. It is hypocritical and short sighted to accept fossil fuel operated power plants, just because emissions are invisible to the eye, but then oppose clean and renewable energy sources because solar panels look ‘ugly’. Apart from the quality of life benefits, it is also in our economic interest to reduce as much as possible our dependence on imported fuels.

Pandering to lobbies

The PL and PN’s idea of ‘progress’ are hauntingly similar. They want to spend billions on an underwater tunnel. An admission of their failure to create jobs in Gozo. In the meantime for years on end we’ve been hearing of a fast internet link for Gozo, something which is essential for job creation. Year after year, budget after budget this ‘link’ never materializes.

Since it was one of its proposals, the PN took credit for removing stamp duty on properties in Gozo – not for first time buyers, but for everyone and anyone. Another PL-PN coalition to speed up the cementification of the island. They both promised an airport in Gozo, as if daily commuters between Malta and Gozo will fork out expensive tickets for a plane ride to Luqa. The smaller the country the bigger the megalomaniac visions, it seems. They want more cars, more planes, more cement. Busuttil also declared in Parliament that he can’t see any planes landing in Gozo. Great. May it remain that way. The problem is and remains the PL and PN coalition of shortsightedness and their pandering to the usual lobbies.

Ralph Cassar is secretary-general of Alternattiva Demokratika and local councilor at H’Attard