Energy ministry may take legal action over gas pipe

The Balearic government is “prepared to take legal action” if necessary to defend plans for a gas pipe line, which the central government failed to include in its master plan for the Balearics. Priam Villalonga, the Balearic minister of innovation and energy, and Joan Perchés, the director general of energy, explained the channels open to them. Under a 1997 law, the energy plans of the island regions have to be planned by the State “in accordance with the autonomous communities” and the central government is obliged to guarantee electricity supplies. Villalonga pointed out that GESA-ENDESA plans to install a new generator for natural gas at Son Reus in the period 2003-2005. If the central government postpones energy planning in the Balearics without defining a system for transporting gas or installing electricity cable links with the Peninsula, GESA will not be obliged to build the new generator, which will put future energy supplies at risk.