PN press Muscat for new powerplant completion date

Addressing a press conference outside the Marsa power plant this afternoon, PN representatives called on the government to make its energy contracts public, in time for Monday's parliamentary debate.

PN deputy leader Mario de Marco, spokesman for energy George Pullicino and spokesman for planning Ryan Callus said that the government’s refusal to do so could be interpreted as a sign of trouble.

"We don't even know if a contract has been signed yet, let alone its conditions" said De Marco, calling on Prime Minister Joseph Muscat to publish the contracts without delay.

Photo by Matthew Agius

“No foundation has yet been laid and tariffs have already gone down" said de Marco, implying that this will cause an accumulation of debt and asking the government to specify who will be responsible pay it off.

“The PL made an election promise to finish a new power plant in two years,” they said. “18 months in, they will not make the deadline.”

"It is absolutely absurd that the Prime Minister has signed a contract binding the nation and yet the nation has no idea what it contains" said Pullicino. "The Electrogas contract binds the country for 18 years. We have repeatedly asked to see these contracts, but the minister consistently refuses."

"On the 16th May, the Prime Minister had promised to publish the contracts, but when a parliamentary question was tabled asking him to table them, he said that the contracts will be published 'at the opportune time'. That opportune time is now."

Pullicino said that the country's energy demands currently fluctuate from a baseline value of 210 megawatts to a peak of 430 megawatts. The current power station can satisfy these demands and there is "no real need for a new power plant, particularly once the interconnector project is completed."

"The Chinese company [buying the plant]  would not have committed to purchasing it if it was as bad as the PL had said it was before the election", added Callus.

Callus explained that furthermore, Malta's credit rating is tied to Muscat's two year promise. "We are now in a position where the credit rating agencies have taken the government's promises into consideration in calculating Malta's credit rating and now there is no telling how the delay will affect our credit ration. We are in this position because the prime minister has promised the impossible. We can only hope that this will not hurt our competitiveness."

Asked by the press what the solutions are at this stage, de Marco answered that, 18 months into the government's tenure, the question should be posed to someone else.

“Ask Joseph Muscat, not me,” he said. “The time has come to ask these questions of the government, not the Opposition.”