Simon Busuttil put up a spirited defence of the Nationalist Party’s position on the long-running power station saga when appearing on a recent edition of TVM’s Dissett.

When asked about the ‘experts’ the PN is using to fight its case and about their line of argument, Dr Busuttil would not be drawn but, in what has now become standard Joseph Muscat fashion, suggested we wait until the ‘reports’ were ready for publication.

At the end, Dr Busuttil repeated his mantra about the “unnecessary power station” made “unnecessary” by the Sicily interconnector, adding that it would have been much better if we had simply “waited for the [gas] pipeline”.

Timescales apart, that might sound like fair comment, if only it did not beg a rather central question: what would Dr Busuttil or his ‘experts’ propose to do on that happy day when the gas pipeline ‘arrived’? Put it another way, what was the gas going to power?

The BWSC plant would have to be converted to run on gas; the ageing Delimara steam turbines (2 X 60MW) could conceivably have their boilers powered by gas, but their age and low efficiency would very probably require their retirement and substitution by a modern, high-efficiency gas turbine.

What power? At least 120MW if we wanted to give the ‘PN’ interconnector first place, but higher if we want to have a good local reserve and make proper use of the gas supply. Now this set-up, that ‘damned’ FSU and ‘agreed price of power’ apart, would look remarkably like the present proposal. Would it then be ‘unnecessary’?

From another angle, could we have  a HFO-BWSC, HFO ‘steam turbines’ and  a gas-powered interconnector (Gela power station runs on gas) – our actual set-up – and still meet our CO2 limits?

Before Dr Busuttil goes in for further broadcasts on “unnecessary power stations” he really should answer the above questions. A clear answer will not detract from his objections to the Marsaxlokk-based FSU, though even there, a little more sense would not come amiss.