Opposition leader Simon Busuttil said today that the only thing the Opposition expected of Prime Minister Joseph Muscat was for him to keep his word - his promise that he would resign if the new power station was not completed within two years.

Speaking in Parliament during the debate on the building of the new power station, Dr Busuttil said this debate was not so much about the delays in the project, but about the prime minister's own failed credibility.

The building of a power station within two years was a central Labour promise in order to be able to reduce the tariffs. The prime minister had also said that if the power station was not completed within two years, he would shoulder personal responsibility and resign.

It was not a promise about reducing the tariffs, but a promise about completing the power station within two years, and then reducing the tariffs. 

Now Dr Muscat had admitted that the power station would not be ready on time.

Not only had the two-year completion date been shown to be a lie, but there had been subsequent lies when the government insisted that the project was 'on track'. Dr Muscat and his ministers had long known that the project was actually off track, but continued to say otherwise. 

The prime minister's promise to step down was even made as recently as March 6 this year when Dr Muscat said he was absolutely convinced that the power station would be ready on time. He was then asked by journalist Reno Bugeja whether, if the project was not completed on time, he still felt bound to resign.

And the prime minister replied 'I keep my word'.

The opposition, therefore expected him to keep his word unless his word was bluff, a lie. Was the prime minister going to rely on one lie after another?

The prime minister was a prisoner of his own lies. In order to try to keep his word and to hurry the project, plans for gas tanks on the ground were shifted to a risky tanker moored in Marsaxlokk Bay. Important studies were not carried out. 

Dr Muscat also made other promises which had now trapped him. He had told Electrogas, who would build the new power station, that he would buy all their electricity production. Then the Chinese opted to buy the BWSC plant, but they too expected to sell their electricity to the government. Together, these two power stations would produce more electricity than Malta needed. So what would happen? Would Malta end up buying more than it needed, and at higher prices than the market?

It had now also been shown that it was a lie that a new power station was needed to reduce the tariffs. The tariffs had gone down, without a new power station. But how would the tariffs shortfall be funded? Would it be through the savings from the BWSC plant, the interconnector, or higher fuel prices? The people were already paying considerably more for their fuel than they did three years ago, even though international oil prices were the same. What the people were saving in electricity, they were paying for through fuel.

So would the prime minister declare that he would now reduce fuel prices?

Listing other 'lies' by the prime minister, Dr Busuttil said the prime minister had promised not to privatise Enemalta. Yet he was selling a third of the corporation to the Chinese and even giving them control of the BWSC plant. 70 per cent of that plant, so strongly criticised by the Labour Party was being sold to the Chinese for €150 million when the total cost of the plant was €165 million. The government, therefore, was making a profit from this plant.

Another lie was how the BWSC plant was described by Labour as a cancer factory. Labour had promised to immediately convert it to diesel. It could do so overnight. Yet the plant was still using heavy fuel oil. So either Labour had lied about the dangers of heavy fuel oil, or the government was irresponsible to continue using it, given its perceived danger. 

Before the election Labour said the BWSC was a heavily polluting plant. After the election the government told the EU it was using a clean energy facility - the same BWSC plant.  

Concluding, Dr Busuttil said the prime minister had promised accountability. He had promised to usher in a culture of resignations.  

This was the time to see if Dr Muscat believed in the culture of resignations, and whether he would keep his word.

"Do not be weak before your own word. You cannot blame anybody, You cannot escape," Dr Busuttil said.

"You have no choice. You have to keep your word and resign. If you do not, people will look at you and the government as an administration which cannot be believed," Dr Busuttil concluded.

PULLICINO URGES GOVERNMENT TO ABANDON PROJECT

Another speaker for the Opposition was the shadow minister for energy, George Pullicino, who said the government was binding itself to buy electricity for 9c6 when it could buy electricity through the interconnector for a third of that.

He asked the government to explain why the two-year deadline would not be met, especially when the gas storage tanks would no longer be on land.

Mr Pullicino said the delay could be seen as a blessing in disguise. It was an opportunity for the government to abandon the project and instead fully utilise the €200m interconnector, while working on the building of an EU-funded gas pipeline.