Parliament Approves Electricity Draft Law Despite Aoun’s Reservations
إقرأ هذا الخبر بالعربية
Parliament endorsed on Thursday an electricity draft law that was approved a day earlier by the joint parliamentary committees based on a proposal made by Speaker Nabih Berri and rejected by MP Michel Aoun’s Change and Reform bloc.
Aoun expressed reservations on the bill during the session. He had met with Berri ahead of the legislature’s meeting.
Later in the day, Berri adjourned the session for lack of quorum.
Contacts made overnight with Aoun had failed to convince him of the settlement reached at the committees meeting on Wednesday to adopt the cabinet’s $1.2 billion electricity proposal with a few amendments.
Aoun insisted that the draft law approved during the meeting contradicted with the initial energy bill endorsed by the cabinet on Sept. 7 which stated that Energy Minister Jebran Bassil should form the Electricity Regulatory Authority within three months and Electricite du Liban’s board of directors within two months.
During the meeting of the committees, lawmakers approved the proposal made by Berri to make two amendments to the government’s electricity project, forcing Bassil to begin forming the regulatory authority and the board of directors as soon as parliament endorses the bill on Thursday.
High-ranking FPM sources also told As Safir daily that the referral of the cabinet’s decision to the parliamentary session as a draft law is a violation of the separation of powers.
But parliamentary sources stressed that Berri’s proposal was aimed at appeasing both Aoun’s camp and the March 14-led opposition which had been insisting on introducing to the draft law proposed to parliament some articles approved by the cabinet.
The sources said that the agreement met some of the opposition’s demands and at the same time didn’t allow Aoun and his team to make major compromises.
22 September 2011, 10:46
16
Soon Aoun will be holding hands with Mowaten and Jabal Amel in Bashar's exile compound in Tehran...
22 September 2011, 12:20
09
Lebanon wants to UPGRADE their current electric plants to generate an additional 700 Megawatts for the price of 1.2 billion dollars! After the upgrade we will have 2200 Megawatts total
http://www.thenational.ae/news/worldwide/middle-east/cabinet-backs-1-2bn-scheme-to-boost-lebanons-electricity-output
Egypt just signed with General Electric to buy and install 2 NEW advanced electric plants to generate 2250 Megawatts for the price of 300 million dollars!
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/egypt-selects-ge-technology-for-300-million-in-electricity-contracts-to-power-countrys-growing-needs-2011-09-20
Following the numbers from Egypt, we can throw all our current electric plants and buy new ones for the price of 300 million and we will have 50 megawatts extra!
Something is really wrong in this country!
22 September 2011, 14:49
02
اكيد
مستحيل يوافقوا على مشروع الا اذا كان الهم حصة فيه
بس انا بدي اعرف على شو علينا 40 مليار دولار دين
و الكهرباء زفت
الانرنت زفت
الاتصالات زفت
المواصلات زفت
الامن زفت
التعليم زفت
السياحة زفت
كلشي زفت الا الزفت
22 September 2011, 17:00
03
So the cowardly army deserter wasted everybody's time for over two month trying to give his incompetent son in law the means to buy a seat in the 2013 parliament only to accept the amendments originally requested by his opponents. Another "victory" for the "general" to add to his many previous ones, René Ala is laughing his ass off..
22 September 2011, 17:56
01
I think that Naharnet should take the post by "balad sara2in" further with the comparison. The numbers did not make sense to me and I have a great deal of knowledge about Energy. And may be, discuss the possibility of green energy as the air in Lebanon can not take any more pollution than it has at the present time!
22 September 2011, 20:07
01
If caporal MA has some reservations about it, then I trust there has to be something good in it!
23 September 2011, 04:37
00
Marc and Balad sara2in, the 1.2 billion is not just for generators. If that were the case than yes, 300 million would be enough. It includes upgrades to the power lines, renting tempory generators for immediate boost, dismantling of the old oil fired plants... etc. Dailystar had a good op ed on it and so did Now Lebanon (believe it or not) that was written by a very good, unbiased foreigner, Matt Nash.
