The government’s admission that it may have to ask Brussels for an extension to continue operating the Marsa power station is symptomatic of the casual way Malta approached EU membership, according to an environmentalist.
“We had this big drive to join the EU but we took membership too lightly,” Nature Trust president Vince Attard said.
The Marsa plant was allowed to operate for 20,000 hours, which will soon be consumed and the government may have to ask for a one-year extension before closing it down completely in 2013, when the interconnector cable with Sicily is expected to be ready.
Mr Attard said the longer the plant’s closure took to come about, the longer people would continue suffering the consequences of what he described as “a health hazard”.
“After EU membership, we continued following our slow pace and I believe we are not doing enough, especially in the renewable energy sector. Someone down the line is not doing his homework well enough and this is worrying from an environmental and financial aspect because the country risks being fined,” Mr Attard said.
His sentiments were reflected by Alternattiva Demokratika energy spokesman Ralph Cassar, who said people who voted for a European Malta were “betrayed once again”.
“The attempt by the government to further extend the use of the obsolete and polluting Marsa power station shows the low level of commitment to the implementation of the EU acquis,” Mr Cassar said.
During a tour of the construction site of the Delimara plant’s extension last week, Finance Minister Tonio Fenech said the Marsa facility would be partially closed down next year when the new plant becomes fully operational.
When asked about the Marsa plant’s closure, Mr Fenech said he was confident the EU should have no problem with this, given the government’s commitment to seek alternatives to Marsa. He also said the decision to use low sulphur fuel oil meant the aged plant was polluting much less.
Veteran environmentalist Edward Mallia, however, was not impressed by the claim that Marsa was polluting less.
“The truth is that with the use of 0.7 per cent sulphur fuel oil the Commission has already told us that, in 2009, we were still above the emission limits set by the EU,” Prof. Mallia said.
He was less concerned by the one-year extension though, which the government may have to ask for.
“After all these years waiting for Marsa power station to close down, a one-year extension is insignificant. It is the result of Enemalta’s shilly-shallying on the Delimara extension,” he said.
Prof. Mallia also pointed out that former Enemalta chairman Alex Tranter’s conflict of interest, which made him stay out of meetings that dealt with tenders for the extension, did not help matters.
Labour leader Joseph Muscat on Sunday said it was “humiliating” the government was asking Brussels for an extension to continue using the polluting Marsa plant. He pointed out that, way back in the late 1980s, it had been promised that the Marsa plant would be closed down.
However, Prof. Mallia was dismissive of these arguments. “The fact is that since the Delimara power station was first built, electricity consumption by the Maltese population increased exponentially and this made it impossible to close down Marsa,” he said.