It cannot appeal the permit for the Delimara LNG terminal but the Nationalist Party is keeping “all options open”, according to Mario de Marco.
In the wake of Monday’s planning authority decision to grant permission for the construction of a power station and a liquefied natural gas terminal, the PN deputy leader reiterated the party’s concerns over the mooring of the floating storage unit inside Marsaxlokk Bay.
The PN was not a registered objector and so cannot appeal the planning decision. Asked what the next step was for the party, Dr de Marco said he could not say but all options were open.
He insisted the PN’s concerns over the LNG tanker inside Marsaxlokk Bay were “genuine”.
In a rare acknowledgement of the deep cynicism shown by residents of the south at the PN’s stand, the deputy leader said it was not easy for any political party to speak on cases like these.
“I can understand that people in the area express cynicism when a political party expresses concern, but our concerns on the location of the gas floating unit are genuine and represent the concerns of many others,” he said, adding there was political consensus on the new power station, the shift to gas and the lowering of electricity tariffs.
The PN representative on the Malta Environment and Planning Authority board, Ryan Callus, was one of two board members who voted against the project.
Dr de Marco said the PN’s objection was to the location of the gas storage tanker, more so when a maritime impact study had not yet been done despite promises that it should have already been carried out.
“We believe the LNG tanker should be located outside the port similar to the Livorno case. We are not against the project but we would have been irresponsible not to flag our concerns,” Dr de Marco said, adding this project was not a simple block of flats.
He was flanked by Mr Callus – who said that Monday’s meeting felt like the whole affair was a “fait accompli” – as well as by PN president Anne Fenech and energy spokesman George Pullicino.
Mr Pullicino said the process was “vitiated” because alternative technologies were not taken into consideration and no alternative site assessment was carried out.
He insisted it took six years of studies to get approval for the Marsascala recycling plant, including an alternative site assessment.
When it was pointed out to him that the recycling plant’s alternative site assessment was deemed vitiated by the Mepa auditor, Dr Pullicino said that if that exercise had been vitiated, the LNG terminal process was “super, super vitiated”.
ksansone@timesofmalta.com