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A whole lot of wasted energy

Vaseline

Remember the days when it was said that the Nationalist government was not pursuing a serious national energy policy? When it was said that the only thing the PN added to the national grid was a Delimara “cancer factory” power station and a partially EU-funded Sicilian interconnector?

Incoming Prime Minister Joseph Muscat expressed his scandal that Enemalta, a 100% state-owned company, had added two-thirds billion to the national debt over the past 25 years, bringing it to almost five billion euros.

Remember how, on the advice of Konrad Mizzi, he reduced that worrying level of debt by selling a third of our national electricity grid to Chinese interests?

After eleven years of Labor rule, the new, privately owned Electrogas power station cannot meet the demand of the sudden 25% population growth due to unsustainable economic policies based on immigration and cheap foreign labour.

Unfortunately, even today, Enemalta continues to suffer huge losses.

On the other hand, BWSC’s new LPG plant and “cancer plant” have both made a handsome profit for their private owners. No surprises as to how or why this situation came about.

After last summer’s widespread power outages, Prime Minister Robert Abela decided on a quick, smart solution. He decided overnight to build another new ‘cancer factory’ in Delimara.

The initial cost of this power plant was estimated at 12 million euros, but according to the tender documents it has risen to 46 million euros. But don’t worry, says Energy Minister Miriam Dalli.

This diesel-powered plant is “only temporary” and “just a backup” and will be moved away once the second interconnector, as per the PN’s original policy, is finally started and completed.

Labor is populist to the core

At a recent rally, Abela announced that Malta’s GDP per capita was only a quarter of the Eurozone average eleven years ago and that today this has risen above the Eurozone average, making us “among the best in world”.

What he failed to mention is that a similar recent EU study found that the real purchasing power of local wages under Labor has fallen since 2016 and has not kept pace with the price rises of food and other necessities.

And yet, why does Labor continue to tax the annual statutory COLA wage increases or increase the income tax-free brackets? The answer is simple. Labor is populist to the core.

It wants to be seen as a generous soul that hands out checks and subsidies, while its hidden left hand gets much of it back by taxing ordinary wages.

It wants you to marvel at the big GDP numbers nationally, while keeping in mind the reality of the widening wealth gap between the yacht-owning rich and the food bank poor.

It wants you to thank it for a 100-unit social housing project in Msida, but not for the fact that it took eleven long years of unnecessary delays to complete it.

It wants you to think that the price of 450 food items has been reduced using a plan that only Labor could have devised and implemented.

It would have you believe that the ever-increasing national debt will be paid off by the descendants of the Easter Bunny and not by your children and grandchildren.

It should convince you, with words and a smile, that the Labor establishment is made up of people who enter politics without personal gain and who always have only your best interests in mind.

It does so through the twist it broadcasts through PBS news broadcasts and large, self-congratulatory roadside billboards – which, of course, we taxpayers pay for.

Malta needs saving.

Eddy AquilinaEddy Aquilina

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