It is not very often that one hears a minister say that Malta is running late. Finance Minister Tonio Fenech, who is also responsible for Enemalta Corporation, said this last Friday when he was asked about the closure of the Marsa power station. Despite a number of measures that have been taken, Malta is “running late” in its commitment to close down the Marsa power station.

Last week, the Malta Environment and Planning Authority said in a statement that it had notified the corporation that three of the four plants had exceeded the 20,000 hour lifetime limit that had been established by the European Commission in 2009.

The target is now to close down half of the plant by the middle of next year and close the remainder in 2013, when the interconnector with Sicily will be fully-functional. The fact that these two dates would be close to the next election did not go unnoticed, as the government tries to gain political mileage.

But the delay in closing down the Marsa plant could mean that Malta will face the wrath of the European Commission as it did not fulfill its obligations.

And, as usually happens in Malta, the blame game has started, with government quarters blaming the Labour Party for stalling the progress of the building of the new plant in Delimara, and Labour defending itself by saying that the residents of Marsa and the surrounding areas have been promised that the plant would stop functioning for the last 20 years.

But beyond the political game there are other considerations that need to be made – and the most important one concerns the environment. For years, the Marsa power station has been the subject of controversy. Situated in the middle of the most densely populated area in Malta – the Grand Harbour region – and considering that its technology is outdated, the power station has been an environmental hazard for the past two decades.

That Malta is still not in a position to close it down completely is a shame on successive Nationalist governments, who have been in power for more than two decades except for a brief period. Promise after promise has been broken, as plans to use alternative means of providing energy have not materialised as yet.

The government should be doing its best now to at least maintain its last commitment – and hopefully it should stop short of taking credit on the eve of an election. The Marsa plant should have been closed down ages ago.