Updated Sunday 9.15 with PN statement

Marsaxlokk resident Arthur Ciantar has filed a judicial protest calling on the environment authority not to approve the gas power station’s operational permit on Monday.

The engineer said he only received the technical replies to his questions on the impact assessment on Thursday afternoon, giving him hardly any time to formulate a proper opinion for Monday’s meeting.

Mr Ciantar had been a vociferous opponent of the BWSC power station when this was being built, having opposed the use of heavy fuel oil.

“I am in favour of gas but the solution being prospected puts residents like me in danger when it would have been more feasible to have the storage ship placed outside the bay,” he said.

He insisted placing the tanker outside the bay would also benefit Electrogas because supply would not have to be interrupted during bad weather.

He was speaking outside the law courts this afternoon, accompanied by his lawyer, Ann Fenech, who is also the Nationalist Party’s president. Dr Fenech refused to take questions about the PN’s stand, insisting she was only there as Mr Ciantar’s legal counsel.

In his protest, Mr Ciantar said he was holding the environment authority’s board members personally responsible for any damages that his family and property may suffer as a result of some accident that may occur.

“This is a danger that we will be put in involuntarily,” he insisted, adding the ball was now in ERA’s court.

Mr Ciantar said that the technical replies he was given include plans to evacuate Marsaxlokk and Birżebbuġa residents if a major accident were to occur. “However, they would not tell me where and how residents like me would be evacuated.”

Government statement

In statement this evening, the government described this as another attempt by Dr Fenech to hinder the environment authority’s consultation process, which had been extended at the PN’s request in another attempt to halt the gas power station project.

The PN, the government said, had had 40 days to submit comments and suggestions so it was disgusting that the Opposition was going to such low levels, the kind of which never seen in the country.

This, the government said, was the same party that, when in government, was caught in the biggest corruption scandal related to the purchase of oil, left families to pay the highest bills from among European countries, and the the same party that had bought a power station which used the most polluting oil from the Yellow Pages, and that, for obvious reasons, never wanted to implement the conversion to gas.

Today’s irresponsible act confirmed that the PN was only interested in its own partisan affairs, it said.

The government, on the contrary, was to continue working for the country to benefit from the conversion and for the reductions in utility tariffs to continue to be sustainable for the benefit of Maltese families and businesses.

The Opposition, the government said, did not have a concrete alternative to this project, considered a blueprint by the European Commission and that would mean clean, affordable and efficient energy for the country.

 The Labour government’s attack on the engineer and his lawyer (Dr Fenech) for taking steps to guarantee the rights of families and businesses in Marsaxlokk, were unprecedented and confirmed that the government had descended to levels not other government in Malta had gone down to.

PN statement

The attack confirmed that the Muscat government was cut from reality so much so that a resident had to turn to the Courts to defend his rights, which were being breached by the government.

But even worse was the fascist attack that Dr Muscat and his minister Konrad Mizzi had opened on this individual and his lawyer.

This was corrupt behaviour as the government was attacking all those who did not agree with what it wanted.

The PN said that while Dr Muscat and Dr Mizzi would remain focused on secret companies in Panama and the corruption that had taken over Castille, it would continue to defend the weak and help them defend their rights.

It was proud to be defending what was right, it said.