The Parliamentary Committee on Environment and Development, under the chairmanship of Marlene Farrugia, recently discussed two documents: ‘Shortlisted Sites for the American University of Malta (AUM)’ and ‘A Solar Farms Policy’.
The AUM document was very rapidly taken apart by various speakers: Nationalist MP Marthese Portelli, Arnold Cassola of Alternattiva Demokratika, and e-NGO and Front Ħarsien ODZ members.
The pointed questions of Farrugia drove wedges into an already badly-cracked facade.
At one stage Mepa CEO Johann Buttigieg admitted he and a person from the Office of the Prime Minister had held at least one meeting with Sadeen. Farrugia asked Buttigieg whether he was familiar with the contents of the Sadeen agreement. The answer was “no”, which logically would have made for a futile discussion if the Mepa CEO was unaware of the contractual constraints.
Farrugia then asked Principal Permanent Secretary Mario Cutajar if he had any knowledge of who the “OPM person” taking part in the Sadeem discussion was, or indeed if he knew of this participation at all. After protesting that he had been dragooned (not clear who by) into attending the meeting, the permanent secretary said “no” on both counts.
Clearly both Mepa and the OPM operate on a very strict need-to-know basis.
Clearly both Mepa and the OPM operate on a very strict need-to-know basis
Environment Minister Leo Brincat and PL whip Godfrey Farrugia then poured heavy fuel oil on the troubled waters, praising our ‘democratic’ Prime Minister Joseph Muscat and telling us how lucky we were in having a “listening PM” prepared to make a heavy cut-back on ODZ land uptake.
At which point Alfred Baldacchino, though not on the list of speakers, stood up and forcefully made a crucial point: that we were all really being led up the garden path as long as Muscat persisted in not publishing the AUM contract.
The hole in our 2020 renewable energy target that opened up following the ditching of plans for wind farms has required the formulation of a Solar Farm Policy by Mepa in order to cover the deficit through a strong development of PV panels.
The main target seems to be quarries – all sorts of quarries except rehabilitated ones – with greenhouses second, provided an area of not less than 1,000m² per farm is available.
A promise of a scheme whereby people who cannot have a PV system because where they live is inappropriate was mentioned but, as one speaker pointed out, that would need a clear legal framework which the current draft did not possess.
There was a rapid answer of the usual sort: that aspect is someone else’s responsibility.
A committee member pointed out the potential legal problems in determining quarry boundaries, given that the various authorities (police, Mepa, Land Department, etc) often had different versions.
A Malta Developers Association representative then played a symphony in praise of Mepa’s wisdom in going for PV panels; she then switched to a strident, rehearsed sermon against wind power, a sermon fueled by an almost complete lack of information.
Perhaps noticing this lack, the Parliamentary Secretary for Animal Rights etc., Roderick Galdes, said that wind turbines (number and location unspecified) killed more birds in one day than all the birds killed in Malta in one year.
Presumably the local mortality list did not include those imported finches – 400 or so – that Customs rescued from illegal importation only for his department to let them waste away. Great minds think alike they say. Yet some hold that fools seldom differ.
Edward Mallia is a retired University lecturer and honorary chairman of Friends of the Earth (Malta).