Labour today slammed the Prime Minister for saying last Sunday that the price of oil had reached $150 per barrel.

Labour MP Marlene Farrugia said this was untrue and the price of oil was actually $111 per barrel. The only time the price of oil came close to $150 was in August 2008, when it reached $148.

Lawrence Gonzi was either trying to be deceptive or was wrongly informed, she said.

Dr Gonzi may have "exaggerated" the cost of oil to justify raising the electricity prices after the election, as indicated in a recent report by the European Commission.

The Government, she said, opted to continue Malta's dependence on oil when it invested in a power station using heavy fuel. On the other hand, Labour would invest in gas, a cleaner fossil fuel. It would also focus on creating an energy mix, such as through the harnessing of solar energy, even if that means investing in sea-based solar farms.

Meanwhile, Labour MP Michael Farrugia said that if the Prime Minister had made an innocent mistake, this too was worrying because he had made too many of these mistakes in recent weeks. He said consumers were concerned about the cost of electricity tariffs as well as health costs of polluting forms of energy.

PN EXPLAINS

The Nationalist Party said that it was clear that when he referred to the price of $150 per barrel, the prime minister was referring to the record price during this legislature and forecasts by economists that such prices could return.

If his statement was understood to mean that $150 was the current price, this was a mistake. 

During the same comments, Dr Gonzi pointed out how the Labour government had raised utility tariffs when the oil price was just $12 per barrel, and Joseph Muscat had praised that move. 
Now Dr Muscat was promising to reduce tariffs, whatever the price of oil was. He was not saying when or how he would meet the increased cost. However it was clear that Dr Muscat's promises would mean higher taxes, the PN said.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.