While the two main political parties have made a political football out of the fuel surcharge issue, Alternattiva Demokratika has been insisting on its importance as Malta’s drinking water depends on fuel, said party chairperson Harry Vassallo.

Speaking yesterday at the party headquarters, Dr Vassallo said AD was both critical to the MLP’s proposal of axing surcharge by half as well as the PN’s decision of administrating it by way of a flat rate.

AD was in turn proposing a scaled down surcharge which is based on energy consumption per capita.

Elaborating on the economical side of the issue, Edward Fenech said the government would not lose money on implementing such a system. He said the system would penalise those wasting energy while encouraging thrifty energy consumption. The current system is just encouraging people to waste energy, he said.

Spokesman Ralph Cassar said Malta should in the next five years encourage people to revert to energy saving bulbs, install five wind turbines each generating 450 kilowatts and install 5,000 photovoltaic units. By also installing an additional 50,000 solar water heaters, the government would realistically start fulfilling its EU obligations of having 10 per cent of its total energy from renewable sources by 2020.

Dr Vassallo spoke about the merits of the CO2 credit trading system, from which he said, both the government and Maltese companies would benefit. He also foresaw the creation of a local niche market of consulting in the field.