The ESG says it wishes to take up an important issue raised during a recent GBC interview with Deputy Chief Minister, Dr. Joseph Garcia regarding the expected completion date of the new power station.

The group says that it has lobbied for the past 14 years for such a facility and that it regrets that, in spite of assurances given repeatedly by the present Government that a new station would be completed within the same time frame as the previous GSD project, it now hears this is not going to happen.

The ESG note that although the Department of the Environment is now spending money on a year-long campaign to reduce power use, this “unfortunately won't move the new power station along, reduce pollution from the ageing power stations or indeed reduce energy use given that all the new government housing will now come on line before the new power station is completed. Despite this campaign the energy demand in Gibraltar will unfortunately substantially increase in the next few months and we can therefore expect more pollution and noise from our ageing power stations.”

A statement from the group concluded: “The wisdom of placing further load on our aged infrastructure, and more demand on an obsolete power generation infrastructure, does not bode well for the future.”