Energy for the future

We are living in a time of high oil prices. The lethargic Nationalist administration was caught unprepared for this looming energy crisis and its only policy was to confidently do away with the hedging agreement on oil imports. Now, every citizen, industry and business is forced to pay the price of this myopic strategy (that is, short sightedness).

Malta's energy problem is unique in Europe, namely because this country continues to rely exclusively on imported oil for all its energy needs, apart from the fact that it is geographically a "stand alone" - it has no frontiers with other countries whereby electricity could be fed through a grid from other countries.

EU regulations require member states to have a sizeable portion of their energy demand derived from alternative sources. This has not been implemented in Malta. EU member states have long pursued energy autonomy. Malta, it seems, remains the only sitting duck.

With no energy policy or targets in sight, prospective projects (new hospitals, infrastructural projects, hotels) continue to ignore energy demand considerations, while power stations continue to emit noxious substances in the air, oblivious of EU regulations.

The government's solution in the past was to concoct documents and reports that cleared the sky, with the intention of not hindering Malta's accession negotiations with the EU.

Now, the Maltese public is made to pay for the government's procrastination to produce an effective energy policy that would diversify, rationalise and innovate the energy sector to the levels of our European partners.

Government incompetence goes back to the 1990s when the Malta Council for Science and Technology, then headed by George Pullicino, was asked to start studies for the preparation of a National Energy Plan. Apparently, millions of euros were made available by the EU, but nothing came out of it.

The university's contribution to developing new technologies, train personnel and find ways of minimising energy waste could have been significant in mitigating the impacts of the present energy crisis. But nothing of this sort was followed. Labour can hardly be blamed by the PN media for this.

After this failure, the government set up the Malta Resources Authority (MRA) with the specific task of drawing up an energy policy. For a long period of time, the MRA actually hindered the development of new energy technologies. In the end, the MRA submitted an energy policy but it came too late and with little substance to be of any consequence.

On a more tangible level, Enemalta Corporation issued its electricity generation plan for 2006-2015. This report shows that the immense problems in the energy sector can no longer be shelved and states that the combined cycle gas turbines are the only generating plant able to comply with the present expected emissions limits in 2020. In addition, it recommends a gas pipeline to supply these turbines, something that the Nationalists had said they will be doing in the National Action Plan for the adoption of the acquis, prior to Malta's accession, in 2002.

The report concludes that the Marsa plant is obsolete and fails to comply with the National Emission Reduction Plan. We knew this before Malta's EU accession when we were also promised that the Marsa power station will be closed. This has not happened and Marsa lingers on. In the absence of alternative energy sources and the inability of the Delimara plant to cope with the national electricity demand, Marsa's closure will leave many households without electricity.

The Enemalta report also shows that emissions from the steam plant at Marsa and Delimara do not comply with the EU directive on large combustion plants and the Gothenburg Protocol. Surely, the PN government could have taken these parameters into consideration when it built the Delimara power plant so that this will comply with EU standards.

How will the PN administration redress its lack of foresight in the energy sector? By its usual modus operandi of placing the burden on taxpayers! Labour rejects the idea that the ordinary citizen always has to pay for the mistakes of the upper echelons and top management, especially when it appears that such errors are so blatant.

Labour has a vision for the energy sector based on a three-pronged approach. Firstly, we will take the initiative to attract investment in alternative energy resources. Secondly, we will implement energy-saving schemes both at home and in public. Thirdly, we will endeavour to explore Malta's hydrocarbon potential and initiate research by training personnel in the scientific investigation of geological structures that hold hydrocarbon potential.

Ultimately, procrastination, inaction and lack of initiative by a government in the energy production sector will only result in even higher electricity and water bills for the consumer in the coming months.

Mr Mizzi is the Labour Party's main spokesman for infrastructural services.