The Environmental and Resources Authority is set to decide today on the Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control application, which includes the operation of the gas power station and the LNG tanker.

Today’s public consultation has been met with heavy criticism by those opposing the LNG tanker. Official responses from the previous consultation were only made available to the public on Thursday, giving them just a few days, the week before Christmas, to go over the official answers and come up with a set of follow-up questions for today’s session.

President of the Nationalist Party Executive and maritime law expert Ann Fenech slammed the Planning Authority and the ERA for allowing such long presentations to be carried out by Electrogas and the ERA – lasting four hours, while the public was only given one and a half hours to voice their concerns.

A Marsaxlokk resident filed a judicial protest on Saturday against the ERA ahead of today’s final decision on applications for permits for the LNG power station.

The judicial protest was filed against ERA, the authority’s chairman Professor Victor Axiak and the authority’s board members by engineer Arthur Ciantar, assisted by Dr Fenech. She presented the protest on Saturday afternoon at the Law Courts.

Mr Ciantar is complaining that the authority published a 70-page document replying to the concerns expressed by all stakeholders involved, leaving residents with no more than four days to look into these replies before the final consultation meeting, which will be held tomorrow.

It also refers to the fact that the public was only given 30 days, later extended by another 10, to evaluate the 15,000-page report issued by ERA after the LNG tanker arrived in Malta.

The government has been insisting that the project is safe and has dismissed any claims that there had not been enough consultation with residents. 

In a statement issued after Saturday’s judicial protest against the Environment and Resources Authority, the government accused Dr Fenech of attempting to undermine and hinder the authority’s consultation process.

That process, the government said, had been extended at the PN’s request in what it said was another attempt to halt the gas power station project.

The government said that the PN had been given a total of 40 days to formulate its feedback and as such, it was “disgusting that the Opposition was stooping to such levels, the likes of which the country has never seen before”. 

In an increasingly heated public debate between Dr Fenech and the government over the LNG tanker, Dr Fenech, while giving an interview for INDEPTH, The Malta Independent current affairs programme, quoted from the safety reports once available on the ERA website where it confirmed that the jetty next to which the tanker will be berthed, currently has no certification, creating issues with insurance and other necessary coverage.

She also pointed out shortcomings highlighted in the safety report with regards to wave studies, data of which was extracted through a private company that carries out such a service through simulations and historical patterns, and not through physical buoy readings.

The church’s environmental committee has meanwhile issued a statement calling for the Environment and Resources Authority to address each issue relating to the gas power station, and respond to them honestly and truthfully.

In its main concerns, the committee noted how an issue that will decide on the generation of electricity in Malta was being turned into a political football.

 “Whenever this occurs, the discussion is contaminated by partisan interests and the strength of an argument is appreciated not for its validity but by the political allegiance of its proponent.

“The KA feels that, for the benefit of the whole nation, facts have to be made clear to all – nothing should remain concealed but, on the other hand, things should not be blown out of proportion.”

Any issues, doubts or areas for concern should be dealt with prior to any decisions being taken, the committee insisted.

“The ERA has a duty of care of the quality of life of all citizens, particularly of the people living in the area, and cannot delegate to the applicant of the permit the wholesale responsibility of anything that may go wrong in the future,” it said.

It hoped that whatever was decided would help to improve everyone’s quality of life and contribute towards unity and not division in the country.

Finally, while addressing a political event yesterday , Prime Minister Joseph Muscat slammed the Opposition for sending aggressive letters to the ERA over the public consultation procedure and being obstructive towards a project that will bring cleaner air and more stable electricity bills to all of Malta and Gozo.