The much delayed private members’ motion in which Parliament is expressing disappointment in the inability of government to end the energy crisis, almost a year after it started, re-opened in Parliament on Friday. The debate had similar colouration of the initial two debates, but less confrontational as the Second Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Alhaji Malik A. Yakubu, warned he was not going to take any unwarranted interventions that could take away the real focus and purpose of the debate. Mr. Albert Kan-Dapaah, Minister of the Interior, in winding up said the NDC government failed to develop a comprehensive energy plan that was to make thermal power production profitable. He argued that even though the NDC put up the Aboadze Thermal Plant, it could not utilize it fully because it learnt too late that running the plant was expensive, a trend which Mr. Kan-Dapaah said, lends credence to NPP’s position that thermal complementation was not the way forward. Mr Lee Ocran, NDC-Jomoro said it was not true that the NDC did not have a long term plan for energy production, arguing that as far back as 1998 efforts were made to engineer an energy mix that relied on solar, nuclear, hydro and thermal. “We started with the thermal plant which brought on 550 megawatts of power and this was to have been progressively enhanced with a 110 megawatts annually. But was not done when the NPP government came to power.” Mr Joseph Henry Mensah, NPP-Sunyani said it was important to depart from the blame game on who did what and who did not. “What is important for us now is to look at, not just how to build up on the water levels, but also put in place a practical implementation plan to make current searches on the viability of nuclear energy in this country; because we know that it is the cheapest means of energy production.”Source: GNA