Energy production and its costs were high on the Parliament’s agenda yesterday evening, when a motion was passed so as the Enemalta financial estimates for 2006 – 2007 would be discussed.
Minister for Investment, Industry and IT, Austin Gatt, went straight to the point, saying that although the corporation cut losses down to Lm20,000 in 2006, due to Lm21 million in subsidies and the surcharge, (administrative expenses staying somewhat equal), there are still Lm18 million in production costs and a cash flow deficiency of Lm16 million, this year projected to increase to Lm27 million. “From somewhere the money must come! We have to compensate for these losses.”
Stating that the corporation is now at a break even point, and work reports are very positive, Mr Gatt looked to challenges Enemalta must take on to meet up with EU regulations and transfer its production to cleaner, and in due time, renewable sources of energy. He mentioned certain projects the corporation might embark upon – the future use of natural gas as a cleaner energy source; offshore energy suppliers interconnecting with the supply network to provide emergency or alternative energy points; building a 100 megawatt generation plant, and stopping the use of the one in Marsa.
“Manna does not fall from the sky,” he emphasised. “We have to work for and pay for what we produce,” he explained, highlighting the need of the surcharge on electricity.
Nationalist MP Michael Asciak focused on the growing necessity of the use of renewable energy resources, and to that end investment in the research thereof, such as the wind turbine pilot project in Marfa, or the use of solar heaters in homes.
Educating people was also needed, he said, so as to decrease energy consumption and make our country more environmentally friendly. Mr Asciak also focused upon the importance in this regard of EU member state networking, in sharing the over production of energy, a key item in the Lisbon strategy.
Criticising the Labour Party, he said he was sure they were going to talk about the surcharge, and sarcastically exclaimed that the only way it might be removed was if a nuclear power station were introduced.
Joe Mizzi, the opposition’s main spokesperson on infrastructural services, claimed that all that was mentioned in the light of the use of renewable energy resources and networking, was a Labourite promulgation, which evidenced that the party too, is on the right track.
He gave a sizable rendition of the way in which, he felt, it was the Nationalist Party’s fault that the country is facing the current situation with an exuberantly high standard of living, and a ridiculously high surcharge – in their not having foreseen and done something about the hike in fuel prices, their having stopped oil well excavations in Gozo, and their not having renewed the hedging agreement, which would have left Malta with an invariable oil price. He mentioned EU Directives and clauses within Enemalta’s own annual report, which are not being adhered to – a situation which could leave the country at a stand still, or cost it more money, “emptying the citizens’ pockets!”
The debate is set to continue on Monday evening.