While thanking you for your coverage of my parliamentary speech on the Resources Ministry Estimates (TMID, 14 November), please allow me to correct certain inaccuracies therein:

The report quotes me as stating that regarding Sikka l-Bajda, “there were more negative than positive effects according to a 2006 government report but according to the minister ‘a political decision was taken’.” The report in question was a Draft Renewable Policy document possibly prepared by the Malta Resources Authority which for reasons unknown never became an official document, thus leaving us with an as yet unavailable official renewable policy document. It was not the minister who hinted that a political decision was taken but the Prime Minister himself stated so categorically in a recent interview in your newspaper after claiming to have consulted unidentified German experts.

I was quoted as saying that to date public transport vehicles were the ones which polluted most but were less taxed than others. This is totally different from what I said. What I said is that it is a pity that the government has merely addressed the issue of private cars’ emissions without also addressing public transport vehicles and commercial vehicles which are stronger pollutants of the environment.

It is equally incorrect to state that I called for the proper consideration of land based farms before the setting up of an offshore farm as if this was just an idea of mine. I merely quoted the Mott MacDonald report commissioned by then Minister Ninu Zammit and completed in 2005 – which incidentally took two years to see the light of day – which had recommended that before moving on to consider a near shore wind farm government should first seriously consider setting up two or three medium sized land based wind farms in Malta since they were cheaper, more efficient and much less costly to operate and maintain.

Regarding Gozo, rather than stating that Gozo was not considered, I asked how much truth was there that Gozo was not considered for a near shore wind farm for purely political rather than environmental considerations. Something I considered ironic given that Gozo is being promoted as an eco-island!

It is a pity that no mention was made of the fact that I emphasised the fact that the government had promised in its election manifesto that it would resort to a mega deep water project enough to cater for 20 per cent of the Marsa and Delimara power stations electricity generation and that now this project has been put on the back burner and relegated to a pilot project that can take some seven-eight years to come on stream. A project which incidentally is so far totally untried, untested and uncosted.

Leo Brincat

St Julian’s