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Mar 06 – Feetham “Needs To Put Up Or Shut Up” Says Government

The Government says it notes the Opposition’s latest press release on the issue of LNG bunkering and agrees that, in terms of the potential for future economic growth, LNG bunkering is a matter of public interest. However, Number Six stresses that the public do not need to have any concerns about LNG bunkering, contrary to what Mr Feetham would like them to believe.

As Mr Feetham acknowledges, says the Government, the EU is trying to establish and grow an EU-wide LNG bunkering industry through the TEN-T network initiative. Surely then, it says, Mr Feetham’s concerns regarding the safety implications of LNG must extend to all the major ports and transport routes that will form part of this network. The Government adds that Mr Feetham “cannot be as ignorant or so bold as to suggest that all these European governments, experts and international institutions would be so negligent as to knowingly develop an industry that may have consequences that he is afraid of.”

Conversely, it argues, to alienate Gibraltar from such an important industry development, as Mr Feetham is advising that the Government do, would be “entirely irresponsible and would spell the end of our bunkering industry.” Number Six says that Gibraltar, under Mr Feetham’s GSD, “would not be a major port in bunkering terms as it is today.”

The Government also argues that Mr Feetham’s consistent refusal to name the ‘experts’ he initially purported to rely on when he first started to make what it terms his “sensationalist, exaggerated and unsubstantiated remarks” begs the question as to what exactly he is basing his “hyperbolic statements” on. Instead,  says the Governement, he cites a few select newspaper articles and blog posts and calls it ‘evidence’. The Government says it is left with no choice but to ask how exactly Mr Feetham’s adamant assertions against LNG, “unsubstantiated by any tangible evidence” of his own and considering his refusal to say exactly where he has sought expert opinion from, are generating a debate that is in the public interest.  Number six further adds that if Mr Feetham truly seeks a debate that will enable the public to make up their own minds on LNG bunkering, the Government challenges him to name his experts “rather than attempt to spark public fear based on a few cherry-picked articles.” For its part, the Government says it has already named its experts and is in the process of drawing up the final reports.

The Chief Minister, Fabian Picardo, said, ‘If Mr Feetham considers LNG to be as dangerous as he is suggesting then he must be willing, publicly, to announce that he is totally against LNG and LNG bunkering in Gibraltar as in the rest of the EU. Anything short of this proves that he is only seeking to scare the public as a political tactic and is a clear demonstration of the chameleon-like policies for which Mr Feetham is famous, adapting himself to the colour of the opinion he likes to curry favour with at any particular time. It is time for him now to put up or shut up and tell us who his experts are so the public can determine the calibre of the advice on which he is purporting to rely.’