No tears for Trinidad pipeline proposal

AFTER READING recent statements from the minister responsible for energy, nobody should moan nor groan about the derailment of the Trinidad-Barbados natural-gas pipeline proposal.

Leave the moaning and groaning to those who discovered the sub-aqua mountains and gorges and the possibility of having to lay pipes in depths of water that would incur extremely high costs to Barbadians.

In fact, the abandonment of the pipe-laying project may very well be a blessing in disguise and a wake-up call for policy and decision-makers that we are wasting time and retarding economic recovery and progress by not running full speed ahead with renewable energy that also includes biomass, wave energy and wind.

In our current economic difficulties, there is no compelling reason why Government should be seeking to import a product on the basis of a foreign-owned monopoly being the largest single user of the product.

With value-added technologically driven storage systems, there is good reason why each home and business should be generating and storing its own power with no contractual obligation to a foreign-owned power supply company.

Just as a second retailer of oil is asking for a piece of the pie, so too Barbadians, as de facto owners of renewable energy resources, must demand a piece of the pie as well.

This should be a request made by every voter to each prospective political aspirant who is begging for a vote at the next election.

Apart from legislative amendments, political will, strength, bravery, ability and commitment must co-exist with a vision and the desire to leave a legacy for present and future generations of Barbadians.

As it now stands,, time is being wasted while decision-making is moving at snail’s pace before Barbadians can reap the full benefits from our abundant renewable energy sources.

In the meantime, priority decision-making is not being activated in a crucial situation, just as when Nero fiddled while Rome was burning.

Let the Trinidad-Barbados pipeline lie dead in the sea and let Barbadian decision-makers, investors, homeowners and other consumers embrace renewable energy and run full speed ahead, if we are to reap the success and make the progress that we should.

– MICHAEL RAY