Blog
Bachar Bzeih

“Classy” Walid Fayad Proposes New Electricity Solution

Minister of Energy Walid Fayad held a press conference yesterday to present his new solution for Lebanon’s endemic electricity crisis. After declaring that he was “the son of a respectable and classy family,” he went on to demand the government approve a $300 million financing package to bring 4-5 hours of electricity a day for the next few months.

Electricite du Liban (EdL) has had to shut down its power plants for almost a week due to a lack of fuel. This comes amidst an intergovernmental dispute over how the ships carrying fuel will be paid. The Free Patriotic Movement and its affiliates have questioned and opposed the caretaker government’s attempts to fill the executive power gap left by the end of Michel Aoun’s term. This has included a refusal to attend cabinet sessions and to execute government decisions. On his way out of office, Aoun had accused PM Najib Mikati of looking to unconstitutionally supplant him by refusing to form a new cabinet.

Walid Fayad’s press conference, and “classy” remarks come as part of this continued constitutional battle. The minister defended his refusal to attend cabinet sessions by stating that “I have taken a patriotic position to not attend government sessions, I am a Fayad, from a historic and classy family.”

Instead of going through cabinet, Fayad has issued a decree, to be signed by his fellow ministers, to approve his $300 million funding scheme. However, Mikati is insistent that these decisions can only be approved in a cabinet meeting, and has scheduled one for this Friday, January 20th. This continues to fuel a rift that has paralyzed what remains of the executive branch in Lebanon.

Fayad stated that the $300 million would be distributed as follows:

– $160 million to pay off the two diesel ships and two fuel ships that have been stationed off Lebanon’s coast for weeks.
– $140 million to continue to supply the power plants after these ships’ stock was depleted.

The minister believed that this funding scheme would bring improvements within days, and provide at least 4 to 5 hours of daily state electricity supply. He also announced that he had sent the government a document concerned with the renewal of the deal that saw Iraq supply (unsuitable) fuel to Lebanon, indicating that the first shipment of the new batch could come in February. In addition, he said World Bank-funded deals to import electricity and gas from Jordan and Egypt respectively could be completed soon, pending the appointment of an independent electricity regulatory body.

It remains to be seen whether the minister’s “classy” proposal can manage to make its way through the current power struggles, with a cabinet session dedicated exclusively to the electricity issue planned for this Friday.

1