Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/815607
maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 26 APRIL 2017 News 7 Muscat's energy claims for any contingency, particularly involving the interconnector shut- ting down. Together, the nine development projects being earmarked for Paceville's transformation into a prime coastal area will consume 40 megawatts of energy – four times that consumed by Malta's national hospital Mater Dei, 7% of the total amount of energy gen- erated by Enemalta and almost a fifth of the total energy produced by the new power LNG Was Delimara a cancer factory? On Monday speaking on the in- auguration of the Electrogas plant the PM described the 25-year-old power station which was switched of as a cancer factory. Originally Muscat had insinu- ated that even the BWSC plant was a cancer factory. Speaking on TV during the 2013 electoral cam- paign, Muscat said that removing polluting power stations to safe- guard the people's health was rea- son enough to go ahead with his party's plan. He added that he would also in- vite a child from Marsaxlokk to inaugurate the removal of the De- limara power station's chimney. Muscat heard a grandmother of nine talk about relatives who died of cancer and a three-year-old grandchild who is sick with can- cer. "My father died of cancer and eight of my nine grandchildren suffer from asthma. Each day is spent at health centres. And now, our three-year-old grandchild has been diagnosed with cancer," the woman from Marsaxlokk said. The claim was repeated on Mon- day during the opening ceremony. Four years ago, the claim was immediately shot down by con- sultant paediatric oncologist Vic- tor Calvagna who pointed out that "there was no way that one can ex- trapolate" the findings of his dis- sertation – which he wrote on the Marsa power station for his Mas- ter of Science postgraduate degree in 2005 – to the Delimara plant. Calvagna said the results of his study could not be extrapolated to the Delimara power station be- cause the "primary source of fos- sil fuel used to fire the turbines at Marsa from 1974 to 1995 was coal and not heavy fuel oil as is used at Delimara". Labour had originally promised to shift the BWSC plant to diesel but when elected it extended the use of HFO until the construction of the new LNG plant and the con- version of the BWSC plant to LNG bought from Electrogas. But a study by air quality experts from the University of the West of England, has confirmed that heavy fuel oil, the residue from crude oil refining that fires the diesel engines provided by BWSC, did not lead to an increase in par- ticular matter from the Delimara power station turbines. A study on atmospheric particu- lar matter (PM) 2.5 and 10 - the tiny pieces of solid or liquid matter that are smaller than 2.5 microm- eters, such as soot particles, or less than 10 micrometers - found no particular increase in emissions in a pre-2013 and post-2013 study on air quality in the most affected towns of Marsaxlokk and Birzeb- bugia, which live under the shad- ow of Delimara power station. But the new power station has contributed to the closure of the Marsa and older Delimara power station which are less efficient than the BWSC plant which is equipped with desulpherisation equipment. Birzebbuga Local Council Dar Birzebbuga Triq Santa Marija Birzebbuga BBG1651 Tel: 21650165 Fax:21650444 BIRŻEBBUĠA Email: birzebbuga.lc@gov.mt The Birżebbuga Local Council notifies that during its next Council meeting, scheduled for Monday 22nd May 2017, it shall be discussing the following bye-law: - Use of Facilities (Birzebbuga Local Council) - Activities in Sand Pitch in Pretty Bay (Birzebbuga Local Council) He general public is being informed that a copy of the mentioned bye-law will be made available at the Local Council's Offices which shall be receiving any suggestions/complaints up till Friday 19th May 2017. Svetlick Flores Executive Secretary Due to the bereavement of the Chairman of the Broadcasting Authority, we shall be closed for business tomorrow Wednesday, 26 April 2017 from 13:00 onwards. We are sorry for any inconvenience. Keith Schembri, Konrad Mizzi, Kurt Farrugia and Joseph Muscat were in Baku, Azerbaijan to meet Azerbaijan President Aliyev in December 2014 PN: Electrogas deal smacks of corruption STEFAN PAUL GALEA THE Nationalist Party yester- dayreiterated its opposition to the gas-fired power station in- augurated on Monday evening, with shadow energy minister Marthese Portelli describing it as the "monument of corrup- tion". Flanked by PN candidate Mark Anthony Sammut, Por- telli argued that the deal signed with Electrogas raised "obvious questions". The agreement, ap- proved by the European Com- mission, sees the consortium supplying electrical energy and gas to Enemalta for 18 years. EelectroGas has also signed a 10-year contract to procure its LNG supplies from Socar, Azer- baijan's state oil company. During a ceremony transmit- ted live on television, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat and OPM minister Konrad Mizzi yesterday turned off the last turbine fired by heav y fuel oil. "Yesterday's power station inauguration raises a lot of se- rious suspicions and obvious questions, because this deal was made by Konrad Mizzi," Portelli said, in a press conference at the Nationalist Party headquarters this afternoon. She linked her statements with revelations that Mizzi had opened a trust in the New Zealand with an attached com- pany in Panama. Mizzi has was stripped of his energy portfolio, although he still remained on as a minister within the Office of the Prime Minister, overseeing the completion of the energy project. "The Prime Minister is con- tinuously twisting facts in his favour," Portelli claimed, adding that a lot of secrecy surrounded the energy deal. "The first priority for then- energy minister Konrad Mizzi following the deal, was to open Panama company Hearnville Inc. When one analyses the gov- ernment's deal with Electrogas, one cannot but question his in- tentions," Portelli claimed. She reiterated that decisions taken were clearly not in the in- terest of people or for the inter- ests of those who have accounts in Panama. She also criticised the gov- ernment for selling its stake in Enemalta for €320 million to Shanghai Electric, reminding how the individual who had negotiated with the govern- ment also had a secret company opened for him by Nexia BT, in the British Virgin Islands. Asked by MaltaToday to state how important it was for the enquiry to verif y the allegations conclusively, Portelli replied that "it's very unfortunate that the inquiry was ordered at a very late stage". "Joseph Muscat had said that he sees no wrong in having a minister with a company in Panama; yet his reaction to- wards the latest allegations in his regard are not the same." Marthese Portelli and Mark Anthony Sammut