The past week was interesting in the sense that it further confirmed the free fall the PN happens to be in.

Even worse, they seem to have fallen victim once again to the worst of political ills – that of self denial and of believing their own hype.

One can fault Minister Austin Gatt on many counts but he is usually much sharper than most of his colleagues in the Cabinet, especially now that Minister Dalli is on the way out. This does not say much for the rest of his colleagues but should still put him a shoulder above the rest.

And yet last week he dropped two clangers which risk coming to haunt him in the coming weeks, months or even years.

He brazenly admitted that he saw no reason for seeking reassurances from the promoters of SmartCity just because of speculation going on in the international media about a possible Dubai meltdown simply because Dubai World is owned by the state of Dubai while Tecom, developers of Smart City, are owned by the Sheikh ruler of Dubai.

He would do well to read a recent New York Times article called ‘As crisis in dubai unfolds, quick answers are unlikely’ in which they not only stated that despite attempts by the rulers of the Emirates to calm the storm, outsiders still do not know what to make of the situation, but they made a fine point which Minister Gatt either missed or rather in my humble opinion deliberately glossed over.

Primarily that an ambiguous situation has arisen where the Sheik’s guiding hand has been highly visible, operating through three main holding companies: Dubai holding, a company he controls directly; and Dubai World and the Investment Corporation of Dubai, both fully owned by the government, which the sheik effectively runs.

It was equally strange to hear Minister Gatt boast about how much money SmartCity’s promoters have raised already – some 30m in all for the project, when it was common knowledge – as confirmed by last Thursday’s Business Weekly – that they were understood to have approached local banks in a bid to raise the necessary funds to continue the project. Whether any of them will extend them credit still has to be seen, but from the feedback I have none of them seems to have been impressed by the vacuous and nebulous presentations made!

Another slip-up by Minister Gatt was when he boasted that the greatest problem right now was attracting foreign companies to invest in offices and new structures in the Mediterranean (i.e. including SmartCity) in view of the global economic situation. Ironically, a few months back, his side kick Mr Claudio Grech had made a presentation saying that the financial crisis was actually an opportunity for Smart City Malta as companies were looking for ways for reducing operating costs and relocating or outsourcing to Malta was an attractive option.

It seems the tune is constantly changing but then as a close friend told me “so what’s new?”

It was also embarrassing to see Minister Gatt’s knee jerk reaction to the Opposition’s claims against the successful Danish bidders who seem to have ‘won’ the power station extension by allegedly even getting his own secretariat to ask the PL how the Danish company could contact Joseph Muscat for an appointment when he should not have featured at all in the equation and Enemalta who chose to award the tender to them should have been the contact persons in the first place.

If Minister Gatt felt that the Opposition’s claims warranted an immediate explanation from the Danes’ part, if there is any truth in a prominent media report that the Minister was already aware of these foreign media allegations about the company, then in my humble opinion he should have sought an explanation from them then and not just now.

But one of the stickiest issues is bound to remain: What and why did government decide to ditch the summary conclusion and recommendation of an election dossier compiled by the Enemalta management on 6 March 2008 which gave strong hints as to the corporation’s apparent bias in favour of a gas turbine”

Why the Corporation’s technical evaluation board then opted for a diesel engine turbine remains a moot point.

Which brings me to one other interesting item: Government’s failure so far to fall in line with the NAO’s complaint that the proposal for an energy policy for Malta issued earlier this year still has to be adopted by the government itself.

Although it stated inter alia that a combined cycle diesel engine running on heavy fuel oil with possibility of conversion to natural gas is the best option for immediate increase in local generation capacity and that further expansion will be based on CCGT running on natural gas, the report stated that it investigated the available alternatives for the provision of natural gas supply for electricity generation, so much so that it even considered specific options for the supply of natural gas.

According to the report these were:

• Italian natural gas via pipeline interconnection malta (Delimara) – Sicily (Gela)

• An LNG terminal at Delimara Power Station with transportation via sea vessel

• Compressed Natural gas involving the storage and transportation of compressed gas in pipes inside a sea vessel.

Interestingly, the MRA study concluded that an LNG terminal with a storage capacity of 600,000m3 would be the most feasible option and that the introduction of natural gas in malta apart from enabling diversification in the generation fuel would also contribute towards decreasing the emissions of CO2 and other pollutants.

On page 23 of the draft document which is expected to sometime become THE official government document on Energy Policy natural gas is given so much importance that it is listed ahead of the interconnection implementation.

3a.4 Measures Proposed stated as follows:

In accordance with the conclusions of the studies carried out, the government will pursue the realisation of the required infrastructure for the provision of a natural gas supply.

Ironically in the climate report approved by Parliament there is not even a commitment to do so!

For some lighter relief, meanwhile may I suggest that you read the expected rubbishing of former EU Commissioner Joe Borg by a hack close to RCC. Something I predicted that would happen some two or three weeks ago... I hate to use the expression “I told you so.” But to be fair, frank and honest... I did!!!

E-mail: [email protected]

www.leobrincat.com

Leo Brincat is the Main Opposition Spokesperson for the Environment, Sustainable Development & Climate Change.