Björk Guðmundsdóttir said in an interview over the weekend that she doesn’t believe it’s possible to trust Magma Energy CEO Ross Beaty, and that she wants to see the matter put to a national referendum.
She mentions that Magma has shown an interest in Hrunamannaafrétt, Öræfi, Reykjahlíð, Voga, Bjarnarflagsvirkjun, Kerlingarfjöll and Krísuvík, all places of geothermal activity. “People who didn’t want their names to come forward because they were afraid of losing their jobs brought this information to me,” she says in part. “You might have noticed that Magma hasn’t denied this. Journalists should maybe ask them if they’ve been trying to work out a deal for these places.”
She also brings attention to Beaty’s words from an interview last May, where he says, “We would have been farther along had [the global economic crisis] not happened, although we may not have had opportunities that we took advantage of. For example, going into Iceland was strictly something that could only have happened because Iceland had a calamitous financial meltdown in 2008,” demonstrating the company preying upon Iceland’s weakened economic position.
Björk also mentions the fact that he lied to Grapevine, telling us in September 2009 that he had no interest in acquiring a majority stake in HS Orka.
She contends that the matter must be put to a national referendum.