Gonzi admits that report on cheaper energy already finished

Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi had admitted that the report on cheaper energy tariffs which he had claimed the government has been working for the past year and a half, and which included the Sargas proposal, has already been finished.

Speaking during an interview on Radio 101, Gonzi confirmed that the Government had already finished studying the viability of the Sargas proposal, and is now considering the proposal's environmental impact.

"We carried out our studies. We finished those studies. We are now thinking about it, and we decided that we need to keep studying," Gonzi said.

This statement represents a change of track for the Prime Minister, given his previous insistence that the studies into the viability of the Sargas report as a means to cheaper energy generation were still ongoing.

"Work on studies has been on going for the past year and a half, including on cost benefit analysis [of the Sargas proposal]," he had told Labour Leader Joseph Muscat during the head-to-head Xarabank debate on Friday nine days ago.

"I don't know what [Joseph Muscat] is doing. What I do know is what I am doing. And I know what we are studying. And we will see," Gonzi had told the audience.

Last week, Illum had first revealed that this report had already been finished earlier this year, and sets forth detailed and positive recommendations in exhaustive detail that were however not considered or discussed by Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi.

During the interview on Sunday, Gonzi confirmed that the report analysing the proposal's viability was finished, but however insisted that Government is concerned with the proposal's environmentally impact, given its dependence on coal.

Admitting that the Sargas proposal is a "cheap method of generating electricity", Gonzi insisted however "that coal is very dirty and we would need systems that can capture the pollution."

This is despite how the Prim Minister also said that the technology proposed by Sargas "produced controlled emissions."

"I know that coal is chapter, but the environmental impact worries me," Gonzi said, remarking "if [Labour leader] Joseph Muscat is pinning his promise of cheaper electricity on this proposal, he is making a big mistake."

He said that government is currently studying the proposed technology's environmental impact, and "if the proposal makes sense, when the moment is right we will consider it."

Discussing the IVF and Cohabitation bills, Gonzi attempted to play down the less palatable aspects of the proposed legislation by playing up how both bills would attempt to regulate what he described as "a jungle where anything goes."

On IVF, Gonzi focused on the way the proposed bill would protect fertilised embryos and outlaw experimentation or destruction of such embryos, insisting that "life is life whether in a woman's womb or in a test tube."

He also reiterated his opposition to the practice of embryo freezing, insisting that any embryos fertilised through IVF should be immediately implanted into a woman's womb "so that things can follow their natural course."

Gonzi said that while embryo freezing would be allowed in "exceptional circumstances", the bill would be against the practice "in principle."

He made no reference to how the bill proposes the establishment of a board tasked with vetting all couples wishing to undergo IVF treatments and which would, in Minister Chris Said's words, "ensure that the principles of the bill are upheld."

On the Cohabitation bill, Gonzi insisted that currently, partners that cohabit for years, and even raise children together, are vulnerable to being abandoned by the other partner at a moment's notice.

"We are not here to judge or condemn people," Gonzi said, insisting that the gender of the partners living together is not important. "But we are here to defend those who are vulnerable."

He insisted that the proposed law would protect those are vulnerable.

During the interview, Gonzi also took Muscat and the Labour Party to task over the absence of Labour's proposals, insisting that the public is justified in expecting the Labour Party to deliver credible proposals to justify its pledges.

Gonzi slammed Muscat's assurances on cheaper utility bills as "irresponsible", insisting that Muscat is pledging "substantial" reductions despite not knowing what the international price of oil is.

The Nationalist Leader insisted that such statements discourage households and businesses from investing in alternative energy sources, such as photovoltaic panels, and solar water heaters.

During the interview, Gonzi also reiterated his commitment that the COLA increase be retained and safeguarded, so that workers do not find themselves overtaken by rising costs.

He also took the opportunity to reiterate the PN's claim that Muscat recently advocated a "minimum wage freeze" insisting that Muscat's proposal reflects the position of some social partners who insist that employers should be left free to determine COLA increases depending on business performance. 

Gonzi also insisted that the PN's 20,000 job creation claim was based on the mathematical reasoning that takes into account the number of graduates emerge from University for the past four years, insisting that if these had not found employment, Malta's unemployment rate would increase.