During the Labour Party’s mass meeting in Gozo, Joseph Muscat drew himself up to his full height and dramatically recounted how a grandmother he spoke to in Marsaxlokk told him that eight of her nine grandchildren suffered from asthma, while a number of her relatives succumbed to cancer over the years. He said that her story made him promise to himself that under his watch, oil-fired plants, which he described as “asthma and cancer factories”, would be closed down.

Dr Muscat is proposing to convert the existing power station to natural gas and to build a second power station also powered with natural gas next to it. Natural gas is a hydrocarbon fuel and all hydrocarbon fuels emit CO2 when burnt. Natural gas is less noxious than fuel oil. It emits 73 per cent of the CO2 emitted by fuel oil; however it still emits a lot of CO2 which has to be captured and stored.

I really do not see that Muscat is doing the residents of Marsaxlokk, Birżebbuġa and nearby localities any favours by building a second power station in Delimara.