First Week Gone : Energy takes centre stage .

                           First week of campaign has passed and as expected the electricity tariffs have taken centre stage .
                           Labour have started this electoral campaign with a well organised ,well rehearsed ,introduction at midnight of the 7 Th ,followed by a Tuesday  presentation to the press of its electricity plan .Most of the television discussion this week ,also involved labour energy plans with PN counter arguining the validity and utility of these plans .
                           Labour is using all the advertising know- how in this campaign, trying to depict a perfect image with a perfect show . Large screens ,raised podium under a dome ,perfect attire ,revamped TV studios and new programmes.
                          PN is more concerned on transmitting its message . It is as if you have two bottles of water . One has been tried and tested with a good label ,the other with a flashy label but you do not know whether the contents have been tempered to taste better . Is it poison?.
                           Labour seem to have amassed great sums of money seeing the way it has started its campaign with a bang with weeks to go for election day. Billboards cost money and different images cost even more ,a "Taht It Tinda "costs money , a huge dome costs more. A mass meeting costs thousands. If the plan of Labour is to do a mass meeting every week than the bill at the end of this election will run into hundreds of thousand .
                          Labour s main aim is to try to depict an image of The  Holy Party ,preaching unity ,celebrating all National Holidays with togetherness ,open to everyone ,will accommodate everybody ,will solve everyone s problems .It wants to remove once and for all the dark stains it has in its history by saying that it has changed ,although most of its higher echelons are the cause of these stains .
                         Is this the real Labour ?
                      
                       Things seem to change quickly during election campaign ,experiencing Real Labour  in the past legislature . Taking every possible opportunity to shoot arrows at government ,trying to destabilise when that opportunity rises and even embarking on the political assassination of persons in  government but worst of all its own deputy leader. Who cares about the countries economic progress or the real way forward .Power .
                       The power hungry labour will do anything for power .If this is  necessary for the running of the country because the country is failing so bad that a change is needed ,than be it ,let the people decide .But Labour has to do more than glitter ,show ,perfect attire ,to convince me that a change in direction is needed .Results are there . Confirmed by all .
                      Labour preaches Change , whether Change  is needed or not . Labour preaches No Fear for this change ,when everyone knows otherwise from experience
                      
                      Labour s energy plan is a complete change in direction from PN way .
Labour wants a new power plant financed by the private sector which will account for the majority of our energy needs with the present enemalta power plant and interconnector having a secondary role.
PN wants status quo with the interconnector having a greater share in energy needs of the country and a change to gas fired of the present new power plant with the introduction of a gas pipeline .

                      Labour 's plan presents a number of problems and questions.
First of all the primary aim is to reduce electricity and water bills to the consumer .
Do we need a new power station to do this when we have a brand new one commissioned last month?The advantages of this new Labour power plant is that it will be gas fired, so prices should be low
The disadvantages is that it requires gross new infrastructure associated with it.The whole new power station ,its gas storage facilities ,and the port requirements and gas transport are all owned by the private company .
                  The advantage of this is that we do not pay one single Euro for building any of this  .The disadvantage is that we will be 60% dependent on a private company for our energy needs .The other 40% will be obtained from the Delimara power plant and interconnector . Now energy is our blood .Without energy the country is dead . Is it a wise idea to depend so much on a private company for our blood. Some say this is the way forward ,Government should regulate and control .Private sector to invest .I tend to agree in other sectors but not in areas which need total government control for safety of supply such as Health ,education,energy ,Army and police .The world collapse in 2008/2009 was due to collapse of the private sector which brought a ripple effect on governments .
So should we trust private enterprise to manage our energy needs ?
               
                   The second question is will the interconnector be better ,the same ,worse than the new Labour power plant proposal with regards to price reduction . According to studies the interconnector will give a better price than a new gas powered power plant .Obviously the argument of dependence on private company still remains as we would be dependent on outside supply for our electricity .The only difference is that we will have zero carbon emission and will not have 10 year contract and we will be under EU jurisdiction if anything happens since it is one of the main aims of EU to have total European interconnection between EU member states .
                  Labours proposal means that we will have to buy 80% of our electricity needs from private Enterprise with no change in carbon emissions but which require gross infrastructure build.
PN proposals mean we will buy 70 % of our electricity from outside, with the rest from our present state owned new power station ,which will change to a gas powered one once a gas pipeline is built. This would also mean a reduction in carbon emissions .

                  Both systems seem to achieve price reduction . Labour proposal at an unrealistic earlier stage .
One system needs a totally new infrastructure
One system achieves better carbon emissions values(interconnector)
One system depends on 10 year contracts to achieve price reduction.
One system can achieve EU funding (interconnector . Gas pipeline)
One system depends on sea transport. The other system on land transport and underwater pipeline ,the latter being more secure .
One system has much more insurance problems than the other (gas explosion )
One system sells electricity to enemalta at its own price .The other system(interconnector) ,enemalta buys electricity at competitive prices.

When considering all this i come to the conclusion that Governments proposal make much more sense .Labour s proposal involves too many variables with too many risks  with the same end result of price reduction . Labour s initial brief must have been to get price reduction discarding at any level and at all costs  governments proposals. It is as if you have a good car but to spite your neighbour you buy another one .Do we need all this?