The Nationalist Party accused the government of hindering the work of the House of Representatives committee for the environment and planning, saying that on Wednesday it became clear that the government’s representatives were doing everything to hinder the committee’s work and prevent it from discussing the berthing of a tanker in Marsaxlokk.

The PN said this was in spite of the government representatives agreeing at a committee meeting on 26 February, that the committee should examine the environmental impact assesssment of the project which is proposing the storage of 140,000 cubic metres of gas in Marsaxlokk bay. This proosal, the PN said, will endanger the residents and economic activity in the south of Malta.

It was clear, it added, that the government preached one thing and did another.

Opposition representatives George Pullicino and Toni Bezzina, together with PN parliamentary group whip David Agius and planning spokesman Ryan Callus spoke at length at Wednesday’s committee meeting about the right of the committee to examine all studies linked with the power station plans, the PN said.

It added this was a national project and the environment and plannning committee should be supported in its discussion and examination on it, even if it was being proposed that it would be discussed in plenary session as well.

The Opposition said it considered these obstacles by the government in the committee’s work as part of its plan of secrecy and misinformation on the project. It said it hoped that parliament’s Speaker, who has been asked for a ruling on the subject, would take cognizance of a ruling he had handed down earlier in this legislature on 4 June, 2013, that committee members could discuss with NGOs or experts matters falling under the committee.