I suggest that one may be forgiven for thinking that Michael Asciak (Labour loves gas, TMIS, 14 October) is no less a lover of gas than “Labour”.

To put things in the correct – as against the political – perspective: the PL energy person and prospective candidate Conrad Mizzi has suggested, without any reasoned case, that changing to natural gas (NG) as our major power station fuel was the solution to lower energy bills; but in what sounded like an afterthought, he also hinted that this may take some years to set up. The assertion by Asciak that NG transport by ship (in liquid form) is not reliable is without basis. There are quite a number of (L)NG terminals on the northern shores of the Mediterranean and a new one at Porto Empedocle in Sicily has just been granted planning permission. Of course, our capacity to house and operate the required LNG infrastructure is another matter.

Why NG will lead to lower electricity prices is not clear – to me, at least. It is not cheaper than HFO at source and even the latter’s pollution abatement costs will not even the score, unless we exceed our CO2 emission allowances, an unlikely prospect at present. Admittedly in the longer term, there is the looming EU ban on use of HFO in power stations.

It is difficult to see why HFO, undoubtedly the cheapest, is also “environmentally the safest fuel go-between…”. As for the “clean-air technology currently installed at the new power station”, the public has no knowledge of its performance. Our eagle-eyed regulator, Mepa, is keeping that information close to its chest. We have had “bad smells”, two episodes – at least one of them of the ‘boomerang’ variety passing over Din l-Art Ħelwa twice – of orange-yellow clouds emitted by the short DPSE stacks, and occasional outbursts of thick black smoke. And that apart from the fact that old Delimara burns a lot of HFO and has never had any abatement equipment in its exhaust train. Remembering the Mercaptan and black dust episodes – the accounts in the Mepa auditor’s report and in the proceedings of the parliamentary Black Dust Committee – Axiak is fighting Labour ‘gas’ with a combination of Enemalta and Mepa “bad smells and fly ash fall” plus a strong dose of administrative and political buck-passing.

As for this sudden rush of official “għaqal”, Axiak may know that governments have been dragging their feet over a NG supply since 2003-4. And there still remains at least one strategic question: with the preferred projected use of the Sicily interconnector – another source of cheap electricity in the occasional babblings of Minister Fenech – is the demand for gas for local generation going to justify the cost of a pipeline (around €280 million)? From this angle a LNG installation would be a better bet as we can regulate the tanker imports according to need. But – a large bee in my personal bonnet, this – why not beef up the Sicily cable and arrange for it to be fed by a gas-powered power station in Sicily, possibly using Porto Empedocle LNG?

E.A. Mallia

ATTARD