Apr 30 - Government Hits Back at GSD Criticism of Gas Power Station
Image depicts the former administration's proposed Lathbury Barracks Power Station
In response to the Opposition’s claims yesterday defending the former administration’s proposed power station, the Government has hit back, insisting that the GSD had 16 years in which to tackle the issues of power generation and power distribution.
On the GSD’s claim that it would have been ‘nearly impossible to pipe gas all the way to Lathbury Barracks, a No.6 statement notes that the administration had already fixed on Lathbury Barracks for their intended site, despite ‘the many advantages to having a gas-fuelled system’.
The statement adds, ‘there can be no doubt that a huge diesel power station and, especially its 30 metre chimneys, would have ruined Gibraltar’s skyline and, significantly, the Opposition does not hide this fact. Even in 2009, their architect’s impression could not hide the way in which the power station would impact on the southern tip of the Rock. There were also environmental and natural history issues with this location.
The Opposition also shamefully plays on people’s fears by suggesting that there are ‘significant health and safety risks’ in storing liquid gas. They obviously do not know that there are currently around 6000 liquid gas storage sites in the UK, many of them in heavily populated areas, and these sites are strictly governed by internationally recognised codes of practice produced by the European Industrial Gases Association (EIGA) and the British Compressed Gas Association (BCGA). It is generally agreed that storing liquid gas is considerably safer than storing petrol or diesel.
It is also interesting that, in their statement, the Opposition once again make no attempt to deny that the cost of their proposed power station would push up customers’ electricity bills by about 5% per year. Over a 20 year period, this would mean a 200% increase in the price of electricity, a fact that they have not tried to deny. Moreover, they went to a general election and withheld this information from the general public.’
The Government is confident in its choice of a ‘safe, cost-effective and environmentally-clean choice of power station’.
