Where was Josie Muscat (TMID, 5 March) when the Marsa power station was converted from oil to coal during the socialist era? If the emissions now are 0.86 per Mw, what were they then, when residents of Hamrun and other nearby areas could not hang their wash without bringing white shirts in dotted with soot?

Now, that Josie heads his own mini-party he finds fault at the power station’s emission which is less than it was when it was run on coal and prior to the use of low sulphur oil being used now.

The Marsa power station will be history in the next few years when alternate cleaner sources will be put into operation. This may include offshore wind turbines which have their own problems and possible environmental impacts, however they will indeed help in reducing carbon dioxide emissions.

Any way one looks at it, the recapture of the capital spent in investing in these turbines should only take second priority, the first being our ability to breathe cleaner air. We cannot have it both ways.

Contrary to Dr Muscat’s arguments regarding the Delimara power station, the technology available was then state of the art but technology moving along at the speed it now moves, anything more than a year old is outdated. Secondly it is not that the Marsa station was kept going because the newer one was not efficient enough. It was more a case where the demand exceeded its planned capacity because of the rapid expansion of the industrial and tourist catering establishments.

I cannot make out what Dr Muscat had in mind comparing the feats of the Mnajdra temple builders to the reality of today. Does he wish us to go back to the Stone Age?

Joe Martinelli

London, Ontario

Canada