Published figures for the cost of energy generation in Malta refer to 2006 and even those leave it to the public to guesstimate the specifics. This year, the facts relating to 2006 are more irrelevant than unreliable.
Enemalta is the epitome of government concealment. Every Maltese government has kept its energy cards close to its chest bluffing, stonewalling and misrepresenting the facts as necessary. Except for the occasional half-hearted probe by the opposition, far too often a counterproductive misrepresentation of the facts itself, the sector has never really come under effective public scrutiny. Journalists do not seem to have the time to sift through the facts and figures nor to winkle out the answers we should all be seeking.
Why have we remained 100 per cent fossil fuel dependant all these years? We are a wind-blown, sun-scorched island with thousands of square miles of sea under our jurisdiction, how have we managed to do absolutely zilch for the four decades since the last oil crisis to exploit wind, solar and wave energy? How come nobody seems to want to know why we have dragged our feet so long? How come nobody gets hot under the collar about the millions of euro we have sent up the power station chimneys all these years for no good reason? How come nobody is held to account for it all?
My guess is that if and when some university student decides to explore this reality in some doctoral thesis, we will discover that the subsidies granted to Malta Shipyards and its predecessors will be dwarfed by comparison. Any such study would be a highly dangerous enterprise revealing not only the political responsibility of everybody in public office in the last four decades but also all the financial interests which have given the status quo its overwhelming power.
The Patagonian fog which swirls eternally around Enemalta has been a permanent provocation to me especially because Enemalta is a wholly-owned government corporation. It is a state enterprise, a state owned monopoly. Every minister responsible has been a custodian owing a full account to every citizen shareholder.
This year, the fog thickened when Minister Austin Gatt boldly claimed that alternative energy is too expensive. Despite the PN's conversion to everything environmental in the recent election, Minister Gatt has chosen to reinforce the myth once more. As usual, his inexplicable statement has been accepted without comment by the media.
Does Malta have a secret source of energy it has not divulged? Is anybody making us a gift of the oil we burn? Have our power stations suddenly achieved efficiency levels they have never possessed? What makes us a unique exception to the global energy crisis? Last I heard Malta was 100 per cent fossil fuel dependant, oil for the most part, how can the governments of the most advanced economies in the world, not nearly as dependant on oil, subsidise a wide array of renewable energy projects while we pooh pooh every scheme presented to us?
On the face of it, Malta is top of the list in the global stakes for early conversion to renewable energy. Just one look at global stats and every alternative energy sales team can pick out Malta for a fruitful pitch. They have washed up on our shores with constant if irregular intermittence ever since the 1973 oil crisis. We have turned them down without fail every time.
That we missed the boat in 1973 is bad enough, that we have obstinately resisted every development since is damning, but that this year, with oil at $140 per barrel, we repeat the nonsense that alternative energy is not for us, simply beggars belief. There has to be a reason for it.
Could it be that Minister Gatt continues to rely on a cost comparison study carried out nearly a decade ago? Does he have his heart set on the mega-million project connecting us to the European grid by submarine cable and fear an alternative energy boom might steal the limelight?
Is it simply the indolence of a power politician who prefers to deal with big money all in one place and avoids the hassle of dealing with a multiplicity of renewable energy generators? Why keep up this nonsense about offshore wind turbines as seen nowhere else on earth when we could and should have had them onshore yesteryear?
Minister Gatt can get away with it and that is not his fault. It is our fault for letting him and all his predecessors and colleagues believe that they can always get away with almost anything. Nobody has ever accused Minister Gatt of being stupid. In this case it may mean that the rest of us have to bear the burden of that charge.
hcvassallo@kemmunet.net.mt