A Labour government would ensure the Delimara power station ran on cleaner fuel than that being planned by the government, Labour leader Joseph Muscat pledged yesterday.
There may be three years left before the next general election, he said, but his party was promising that it would make sure the power station did not make use of heavy fuel oil, which was a more polluting source than diesel or gas.
The Malta Environment and Planning Authority would be deciding on the final Delimara power station extension permit on Thursday, Dr Muscat said during a PL activity in Fgura.
According to the outline permit, granted in January, the extension consists of eight engines to run on heavy fuel oil, a decision strongly criticised by environmental NGOs.
Mepa had heard that the chosen technology was unique in the world although the individual components were tried and tested.
Delimara's extension is necessary since the Marsa station is scheduled to be shut down by 2015 after the EU imposed a 20,000-hour operational limit on it.
Dr Muscat pointed out that research had linked emissions from Marsa's power station with respiratory diseases and pulmonary cancer rates.
"Throughout its 22 years in government, the Nationalist Party has been promising to close down the Marsa power station, something which I agree with... But this did not happen, which means the government has 22 years of illnesses on its conscience...
"Instead of learning from past mistakes, the government is now going to solve a problem by creating another one by choosing the most polluting technology for Delimara," Dr Muscat said.
He added that the government was using Maltese families as guinea pigs by using an experimental technology when it contracted the extension to Danish company BWSC.
The contract has been clouded by controversy and corruption allegations. Although the Auditor General's investigation found no "hard evidence" of corruption, it indicated a number of shortcomings.
Dr Muscat stressed that the government ought to be made accountable for taking decisions that impinged on the health of the nation.
He said that he hoped that, on Thursday, the Mepa board would weigh the whole scenario before granting the Delimara permit.
A similar plant run by BWSC in Kenya had led to complaints about noise pollution, he added.
He pledged that a Labour government would put people's health first and find the money to change the power station's technology into a cleaner one.
After all, he said, the current government had managed to allocate millions for the Valletta City Gate project.
In a statement, the PN accused Dr Muscat of using political gimmicks to twist the facts when he failed to recognise the true content of the Auditor's report.