About 18 kilometers north of Beirut, the site of a deadly explosion that killed more than 190 people and injured over 6000 last summer, lies an aging thermal power facility that has served beyond its design lifespan. Although it should have been decommissioned by now, the heavy fuel oil (HFO)-powered Zouk power plant and its infamous white and red striped smokestacks remain standing, despite its low efficiency and high operating costs.
For more than a decade, Lebanese officials have had various opportunities to steer away from environmentally harmful energy sources and switch to natural gas. But the plans never got off the drawing board. Having failed to shift to safer fuel sources and reduce polluting facilities, the Lebanese government has pressed on instead with ad hoc policies, and recently has been considering Iraqi fuel oil amid a ravaging financial crisis. However, to persist in purchasing cheap residual fuel oil—which is high in sulfur content—for power generation, implies a continuation of the Lebanese state’s crippling approach to an electricity sector plagued by mismanagement since the early 1990s.