In the soap opera of politics in this country, the latest surreal episode again featured Minister Konrad Mizzi. Last week he presented himself as presiding over a model of best practice, proven by no less than a National Audit Office report flagging “significant concern” over due diligence. Yeah right, in this telenovela pigs might fly.
This NAO report on the gas power station tender also confirms that electricity from the interconnector is cheaper than that supplied by the Electrogas power plant. This is not new knowledge. It was already discussed in the media last May, when it was pointed out in a leaked report drawn up for Electrogas by Poten, their energy consultants.
Enemalta is however locked into a lengthy power purchase agreement with Electrogas, and with the Chinese-owned Delimara III plant. Eventually, the plan is to build a gas pipeline and switch from LNG to a natural gas supply. In several years from now, the tanker will sail away. In the meantime, everyone will be laughing all the way to the bank. Not Pilatus Bank, naturally, as that has closed down.
The government seems convinced that all people care about is paying lower electricity bills. It is easy to forget that it is sometimes possible to rally people on much higher moral ground than lower electricity bills. In 2013, the PL were very successful with lofty talk of transparency, accountability, meritocracy and environmental protection. All very valid and admirable aims, with which I fully agree. But it beats me how voters who responded so well to such discourse five years ago, seem not to give two hoots about such things now. What happened along the way?
Didn’t Mizzi ask his accountants Nexia BT why they had included this company as his ‘target client’ for his Panama-based company Hearnville?
Will we ever break out of this downward spiral where, instead of holding up principled goals, politicians justify bad behaviour with comparisons to bad behaviour by other politicians? Rather than set a higher mark than before, this kind of politics aims to exist at the bottom of the barrel. No wonder people are so disaffected and disillusioned with the political class and politics in general.
In his press conference last week, Mizzi repeated that he never had any association with the Dubai-based company 17 Black. So the obvious question being asked (and which he is avoiding) is: Didn’t he ask his accountants Nexia BT why they had included this company, of all possible companies, as his “target client” for his Panama-based company Hearnville? Surely he must have wanted to know. And what did they reply?
Nexia BT must have known who owned 17 Black. Nexia BT also sat on a committee that evaluated the gas power station tender, featuring 17 Black’s owner as a major player. It surely did not choose this company randomly when later setting up Hearnville. Does Mizzi have a shred of credibility left with right-thinking people?
Dramatic changes ahead
The new State of the Environment report shows that harmful air emissions from electricity generation have been decreasing in Malta over recent years. This was partly due to the introduction of the Sicily interconnector, and the switch to gas should hopefully reduce emissions further.
Yet this still leaves transport as a big polluter choking the quality of the air we breathe. There are simply too many cars and trucks on the narrow and congested roads, and the pollution they create is doing untold harm to health. Traffic solutions need to be presented urgently.
The problem will certainly not be solved by building bigger roads, but only by reducing the number of vehicles on the move in the first place. People will not stop using their cars without good public transport options.
A National Cycling Strategy has just been launched for consultation, to promote and support cycling as a mode of travel. Apparently, the government aims to be “a walking and cycling nation by 2025”. Seriously. I am all in favour of cycling but in reality it needs to be not only easier but also much safer on the roads for it to be taken up by more people.
The strategy proposes measures to move in this direction. That’s all well and good, but I was rather alarmed by its ‘2025 Timeline’ vision, as follows:
“It is envisaged that by 2025, the urban landscape of the Maltese islands, especially that of the Valletta inner and outer Harbour Districts, will dramatically change from the one of today. This process is being triggered by: the current increase in economic growth; the continuing increase in tourism; further increase in population growth as well as increase in workforce population. This expected surge shall bring with it the expansion and densification of urban centres and business districts which will need to host a hive of economic activities and which will also result in a higher demand for a range of transport services and complimentary infrastructure.”
So this is where we are heading within a few years, officially presented in a government document. Dramatic changes, population growth and densification. And an “expected surge”. I guess I knew that already, just by looking around. But is this really the best way forward? I remember quieter days.
petracdingli@gmail.com
This is a Times of Malta print opinion piece