Malta discovers energy poverty at its own expense

Article from Malta Independent.

The concept of energy poverty might be something new for the Maltese isles but it is something that Maltese taxpayers will soon come to discover once they start being billed for their utility rates with effect from 1 January, 2010.

According to various studies conducted overseas when a family is not able to afford the costs of keeping its house warm and the lights on, it is considered to be hit by ‘fuel poverty’ which is often described as ‘energy poverty.’

This does not mean that one should discard the enhancement of energy efficiency, but when we have a situation where we are being asked to pay utility rates with the price of oil pegged around $80 that are far higher than they were when oil was priced way beyond the $110 p/b mark, one begins to question the rationality and the correlation between the price of oil and the price of local energy.

In the UK, fuel poverty is said to occur when in order to heat a home to an adequate standard of warmth, a household needs to spend more than 10% of its total fuel costs, heating fuel plus electricity. In this text the term energy poverty is invariably used for households that have difficulties to pay fuel for electricity bills for both heating and electricity, although to be fair transport is excluded from the equation.

Fuel poverty is not at all confined to the UK. As confirmed by Energy Poverty – A European Issue, in many EU countries, not the least in Central Europe, it is common that poor people pay well above 10% of their income for household energy costs. It is also common that poor people disconnect from heat and gas supply to save money.

One thing that has exacerbated the problem locally is that we are so fossil fuel dependent, that rising costs of fossil fuels have undermined any fuel poverty targets we may set ourselves – even though the Maltese government is not known to have ever expressed itself on this issue.

In the UK although there was a reduction of households in fuel poverty between 1995 and 2004, the number of households increased from two million to 4.4 million by January 2008, mainly due to rising fuel costs.

It would be interesting were one – possibly the NSO itself – to quantify on a year-to-year basis how many Maltese families are seriously considered to be living in a state of energy poverty. I am sure that this is one particular statistic that this government will do its best to keep close to its chest.



The ID cards’ conundrum

I was recently under the impression that Minister Gatt had stated that by the end of the year the new ID cards will start being processed. When I recently asked him to commit himself as to by when may one expect the entire Maltese population to have switched over to the new ID card system, much to my surprise, I was told that I had ‘misunderstood’ the Minister in question since the whole process cannot start making any headway unless we first get the necessary EU funding.

Will anyone be prepared to bet that come election time the process will still be mid-stream?

In his reply the Minister actually stated that the ID Cards will start being processed by the end of this year only if our request for EU funds will be met by end February. Ironically the parliamentary reply was given to me by way of PQ14273 on the 2 March 2010 by when the said reply re EU funding should have been forthcoming already.



Depleted stocks of light bulbs

One of the problems I invariably came across when I was responsible for Enemalta was the erratic manner in which light bulb procurement and stocking levels used to be run. Although we had tried to address the issue, due to the inherent inadequacies and inefficiencies in the system prevalent there, I cannot honestly say that the problem had been solved completely by the time we left Office. But 12 years later one would have expected such problems not to continue recurring.

Much to my dismay I recently found out through San Gwann constituents of mine that residents were left in the dark in their residential streets due to a shortage of supply of 70w light bulbs – or at least so they were told by Enemalta people.

When I tabled a PQ in the House I came to ‘learn’ that a ship carrying such bulbs had caught fire with the consequence that a number of street lamps across Malta could not be replaced in time by the beginning of the year.

Ironically although the San Gwann residents were told that the bulbs were actually out of stock, an Enemalta spokesperson was quoted as having told an online news agency that while the lamps were never out of stock, stock levels were very low after this particular ship’s incident, resulting in a lengthy delay.



Will St Luke’s Hospital become a mega high quality office block?

Last week the under reported question time provided the opportunity for an interesting supplementary question reply by the PM who intervened unexpectedly mid way while Minister for Health Joe Cassar was fielding questions from the Opposition. What we were told in no uncertain terms was that government completely disagreed with a suggestion that the PL had mooted prior to the last general elections to address a particular shortage – that of an old people’s home for senior citizens, and that depending on any would be improvement of the global economic situation, government was leaving all options open – amongst which that of developing this prime site into a high quality office block as well as what was described as up market real estate.



Going nuclear

Last week during the parliamentary debate on Malta’s accession to the so-called Espoo Convention which is basically a Convention on Environmental Impact Assessments in a Trans Boundary Context, I mentioned the whole issue of Italy’s decision to go nuclear.

Without in any way questioning any country’s sovereign right to decide about which energy options to choose, the point I made was that with the good neighbourly relations we have with Italy and other countries close to home, it is almost irrelevant as to whether one subscribes to the said Convention or not, since logic dictates that such information and reassurances should be forthcoming, regardless of whether we are both parties to such a Convention.

As I know it, Italy had been thinking nuclear for quite some time, but following a referendum in November 1987, provoked by the Chernobyl accident some 18 months earlier, work on Italy’s nuclear programme had been largely stopped.

Since then, things have changed in a big way. Italian nuclear renaissance has gathered pace with its nuclear power industry moving a step further with the creation of a government department devoted to nuclear energy, renewables and energy efficiency. According to press reports, Minister Scajola said that Italy is proceeding quickly with its aim to start construction of a new nuclear power plant before the end of the current legislature in 2013. Particularly since according to its energy plan, nuclear energy should by 2030 provide 25% of Italy’s energy while renewables would provide the other 25%.

What triggered me to mention the case in Parliament was a report I saw that a new regional energy plan has been also approved for the southern island of Sicily, with the plan calling for the construction of new power plants, including nuclear power plants.

One hopes that such reassurances will be sought regardless of the provisions of the Espoo Convention through our frequent and ongoing bilaterals with this friendly country with whom we hope to keep on consolidating our relations even further.
 

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