The Communist Party of Greece (KKE) lambasted on Tuesday Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis for opting for more expensive American Liquified Natural Gas (LNG).
“The government, taking advantage of the occasion and the sanctions against Russia, is promoting the extremely expensive American LNG, which the Greek people will pay for at a time when Greek shipowners are making a fortune from its transportation,” KKE pointed out in announcement on Tuesday regarding statements made by Mitsotakis at the Revithoussa LNG Terminal.
“All this dispels the myth that the increase in energy is an ‘imported problem’ as Mitsotakis repeated today, since all the Greek governments faithfully implemented the ‘liberation’ policy in the name of a nominal ‘green transition’, turning natural gas into a strategic transition fuel,” added the communist party.
“The demand for immediate relief measures for the drastic reduction of the electricity and energy rates, as well as the planned use of all the domestic energy sources, including lignite, is the only solution for addressing energy poverty and ensuring energy adequacy,” the announcement said.
Ensuring that Greece secures adequate energy supplies to meet demand and keeping energy prices at affordable levels are the government’s top priorities right now, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on Tuesday during a visit to the LNG Terminal on the island of Revithoussa, west of Athens.
“We are working hard to achieve as low an energy price as possible for consumers, households and businesses,” he said.
The prime minister noted that the problem of skyrocketing energy prices does not have domestic origins and need to be addressed at the European level, but he added that the government will continue to support consumers regardless, even if the EU does not reach a decision.
To this end, he announced that subsidies for electricity bills will continue in May as well.
“We are facing an unprecedented situation with an explosion in the price of natural gas. This problem is imported. It is a problem that concerns the whole of Europe and, because of this, I have personally fought for a European-wide response to a problem that is not strictly national but European,” Mitsotakis said.
The prime minister sailed around the island and was given a tour of the facilities of the by the CEO of the Natural Gas Transmission System Operator (DESFA), Maria Rita Galli, where he spoke with staff and witnessed the operation of the terminal’s control center.
“I want Greeks to know that the government is ready to take significant additional measures so as to absorb as high a percentage of the increase in electricity bills as is possible and permitted by fiscal margins,” the prime minister stressed.
Mitsotakis was accompanied by Environment and Energy Minister Kostas Skrekas, who referred to past as well as infrastructure projects to be carried out in the coming months to increase the terminal’s capacity and ability to receive ships carrying LNG, stressing that this will also increase Greece’s energy autonomy.
According to Galli, DESFA is working “not only to guarantee 100 percent capacity at the terminal but to enhance this… as we are extending its capacity for regasification and to serve the needs of the market.”
Among others, DESFA is considering the additional of a floating storage unit to the existing facilities that will increase available capacity from 225,000 cubic meters to 380,000 cubic meters, while regasification capability will be increased by 12 percent.
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