Something Has Got To Give!

Something has got to give!

Among those people who are hurting most are those tens of thousands of so-called ‘ordinary’ Bahamians who comprise that class fraction that has been characterized as the ‘working poor’.

Some of these hard-working people have family and friends who are falling through the cracks.

In other words, Bahamians are catching hell as they reel under hammer-blows being rained down upon them by a world system over which their leaders have little to no control.

Sadly, leadership is today bordering on the edge of what some have termed ‘feckless and irresponsible’. Here the specific reference is to an administration that continues to dither and dawdle when it comes to making decisions on matters that are crucial to the well-being of the masses of our people.

One example might be cited that illuminates the point we make concerning the massive social costs of delay.

Instead of coming to decision, the public is asked and expected to believe that some kind of high-level search is on for proposals from the private sector for provision of electrical energy through renewable energy sources.

With the greatest respect, this amounts to little more than an expensive waste of time, to wit an exercise in utter futility.

In this regard, there is no real need for anyone to lecture us or the public as to those things and forces that might be a source of such electrical energy.

Everybody we know is aware that these just happen to include: wind, solar, bio-fuels, ocean thermal energy conversion – called OTEC – ocean current, wave energy and waste energy.

These things will come – we are certain – in the future.

This might well be too late.

Our people need relief now.

We therefore call on the current administration to get off dead center and make a decision concerning liquefied natural gas now, rather than at some time in the indefinite future.

We whole-heartedly agree with suggestions and proposals to the effect that the Bahamas Electricity Corporation can and should be allowed to make the switch from diesel to natural gas to drive its power-generation turbines.

We are also quite aware that the AES Corporation has proposed to build a liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant at Ocean Cay – a man-made cay off Bimini.

This proposal was approved in principle under the Ingraham Administration during its second term in office between 1997 and 2002.

Like everything else, this proposal did come in for some vociferous objection from one or two of the usual sources of complaint; one loud voice being that of Sam Duncombe.

Like some three hundred thousands of our fellow-Bahamians, we hear what reEarth and Sam Duncombe is/are saying.

We just do not agree with her.

Natural gas is being utilized far more extensively throughout the world as the primary fuel for power generation because of these facts: that in comparison to coal, a modern gas-run facility has about half the carbon footprint that a modern coal facility has.

We also readily concede the argument that the government’s room for maneuver is severely constrained.

But even as we make this concession, we are being baffled by an administration that apparently refuses to decide whether it is for or against certain proposals concerning the transshipment of liquefied natural gas through and from the Bahamas.

As previously reported, "…AES Corporation – which wants to build an LNG plant in The Bahamas – could potentially help the Bahamas Electricity Corporation (BEC) both save millions in fuel costs and become more environmentally friendly, the company spokesman contends.

"AES has estimated – based on New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) forecasts – that BEC would save up to $210 million a year depending on the volume of natural gas consumed.

"And with current NYMEX-based forecasts, AES said that BEC would save $3 billion to $4 billion over the first 15 years.

"Natural gas costs about half of what diesel and fossil fuels cost on the open market, according to an AES spokesperson.

"With the more conservative US Energy Information Administration forecasts, those savings amount to up to $117 million a year, and up to $2 billion over the first 15 years."

All we know for sure is that seems to be a good enough deal for a country where so very many people are hurting; and for sure, we know that there is never going to be a situation where anything is totally risk-free.