Labour leader Joseph Muscat insisted this morning that had the government listened to the opposition and invested in clean gas technology instead of heavy fuel oil, the country would now be in a much better situation.

Speaking on One Radio, Dr Muscat said that the people were paying for the government’s wrong decisions environmentally and financially.

He referred to a European Commission report which assumed that the cost of electricity will continue to go up.

This same report was also seeing the cost of living increase at a faster rate than wages.

He said that, before the last election, the government had promised it would not increase the electricity surcharge. But one of its first decisions following the election was to increase it.

Minister Austin Gatt had said that if the price of oil went down to under $80, the electricity rates would go down. But the rates continued to increase even when the electricity rates went down to under $80. The government was now playing the same game.

On the contrary, the PL had a clear strategy that was based on ensuring that the country had a consistent and reliable energy mix using conventional and newer technologies together with renewables.

Dr Muscat pointed out that Malta had already fallen behind in its targets with the EU on alternative and renewable energy.

A spokesman for the Finance Ministry said the European Commission’s report  was forecasting more increases in the price of oil. This led one to conclude that Dr Muscat promise to reduce tariffs was impossible.

The spokesman said that this government had kept prices stable by allocating €25 million to Enemalta and it intended to do the same next year through measures in the next budget.

Moreover, the power station extension should be generating electricity soon leading to greater efficiency, which would also ensure that prices are not increased.