Now that the outcry over government’s decision to make UWI students pay tuition cost has abated, there is the opportunity to debate the issue unhinged from political rhetoric. Let us keep hope alive!
At a recent address to the CARILEC Renewable Energy Conference Minister of Energy Darcy Boyce stated that although he understands the industry is of national importance, government will not rush policy decisions to impact the stability of the grid. Many have come to appreciate that ‘rushing’ is not a quality which is associated with the Stuart led government. At the same CARILEC conference Caricom Ambassador expressed the view that Barbados has reached a juncture where important decisions have to be made concerning energy production and there was a ‘certain urgency’ required.
Commonsense dictates that government and the regulator should not take decisions to destabilize the EMERA owned sole electric company in Barbados. BU must question whether the minister with responsibility for energy should be the one quoted. Minister Boyce must be perceived by his utterances to be the champion of government’s renewable energy program (RE). There must be no doubt in the minds of members of the public that he is part of a decision making process to rollout RE which is calibrated to the urgency of the times. All Barbadians must feel the weight of importance which the RE program has for Barbados. We must feel his energy!
Ambassador Bobby Morris needs to clarify when he stated government is “moving apace to establish the legal framework in cooperation and conjunction with the major players to facilitate the build out of renewable energy”. On the face of it it seems to BU the message he is sending is a more urgent one when compared to that of Minister Boyce.
One wonders if the UWI was able to add value to the RE debate if there might be justification that its curriculum is relevant and aligned to national priorities. And as a consequence paying tuition cost might have been a non issue. In this vein it was interesting to read this week about a college in Canada involved in a research project meant to study electric vehicle use. St. Lawrence College designed three electric vehicle charging stations to study electric vehicle use – see article College plugs into the future. Professor Oliver Headley must be writhing.
If RE is a national priority BU is not feeling the energy.
BU received the following suggestions from Serenity if it is serious about greening Barbados, a laudable initiative.
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For houses they offer greater tax incentives to use photo voltaic energy. A number of other measures, such as powering government buildings with solar energy. Hopefully government goes totally green and include green computing. Electronic files, filing and database and only print when necessary.
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The voluminous Gazettes should be eliminated. Have a public website, courtesy of the GIS, where an electronic publish of information suffices the law of Gazette publications.
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Government should consider lowering the import duty on hybrid cars to allow more people to make the switch. A hybrid can get about 50 mpg these days which is about 8-900 km a tank depending on how you drive.
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And since government has been leading the charge, they should also consider getting rid of the huge number of gas guzzlers in the current fleet of state owned vehicles. All the messenger vehicles, statutory corporations, all of them. Especially the police vehicles. Every single police vehicle is an SUV and this alone uses almost twice as much gasoline as a car.
If government was serious about spear heading the greening initiative then they would seriously consider this. But without compelling incentives for hybrids/electrics then we are going no where fast.
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