263 responses to “Unjust Tax!”

1. 

   Sunshine Sunny Shine

   July 22, 2014 at 7:31 am

   
   

   The SSS does not like none of these political parties. However, given the track record of the BLP and the one of this current government, I have concluded that both are dictatorial and arrogant. Both tend towards a position of not listening to those they deem lesser than themselves. They both are steeply involved in the politics of self exaltation and self preservation. So if you take away from either or, or add a plus to either or, your outcome of what they have done over the years will result in a negative. It does not matter how much nation building the two have done in accordance with themselves and the proclamations of their loyalist; what counts is the contributory factors that have led to “the Now.” Now is what counts and the unflattering responses by this government is certainly a reflection of their “knee jerk reaction and the turmoil absorbing those in opposition is reflection of that self serving interest, which equates to position, prestige and image..

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2. 

   Bajanfuhlife

   July 22, 2014 at 7:44 am

   
   

   The Mottley spin doctors on Facebook have been summoned. Listen for Peter Wickham to back Mottley as he is paid to do.

   What the hell is she asking people to march for? This is not about the people. This is a blatant power grab by a dictatorial , selfish meglomaniac opposition leader who is trying to get people to support her own personal ambitions.

   Mottley should resign for misleading people. Getting people to march when the only solution she could come up with is ANOTHER TAX.

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3. 

   Artaxerxes

   July 22, 2014 at 7:58 am

   
   

   Sunshine Sunny Shine | July 22, 2014 at 7:31 AM |

   Excellent contribution……….. well stated and to the point.

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4. 

   Hants

   July 22, 2014 at 8:37 am

   
   

   http://www.tribune242.com/news/2014/jul/14/minnis-questions-signing-60m-waste-plant-letter/

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5. 

   As it was in the beginning so it shall be at the end!

   July 22, 2014 at 8:50 am

   
   

   Neither of the likes of Wicker or an Oh Henry can save her ass, she too corrupt and nasty, my only warning is for mothers to lock up their young and old daughters as now that Mottley will not be involved in politics she will have more time to assault and molest and rape these girls with GAY abandon. Stand by for more QEH admissions and more violence and Biting incidents.

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6. 

   Sunshine Sunny Shine

   July 22, 2014 at 9:05 am

   
   

   Motley is not the BLP. The BLP are too corrupt to even think straight. All of them are a bunch of arrogant cunts; too blind at this stage to see pass their collapse.

   The country is in turmoil and what do you get – the cunts from the BLP fighting for position and planning to oust.. This is why I cuss these parties and continue to say that they serve their interests first. They have not much to worry about because if they were in any predicaments like those who are feeling the pain, I can tell you that they would be better suited to look after the affairs of Barbados with a human twist.since they would be touched by the feelings of insecurity and worry.

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7. 

   Hants

   July 22, 2014 at 10:14 am

   
   

   What a price to pay for a picture with a loser.

   http://www.nationnews.com/articles/view/over-the-edge/

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8. 

   balance

   July 22, 2014 at 2:19 pm

   
   

   The most amusing and comical denominator in the implosion and the semingly impending destruction of the BLP Sunny Sunshine is that none of the braying jackasses stoking the seeds of self-destruction do not save Mr Arthur hold ‘safe’ seats and some none at all and none of Ms Mottley’s detractors can match her in debate or intellect. I have continually posited on this forum that political parties have outlived their usefulness. this implosion might very well herald the badly needed change to the system of governance in the country.

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9. 

   Hants

   July 22, 2014 at 2:27 pm

   
   

   BE PREPARED. HURRICANE SEASON IS UPON US.

   http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/graphics_at2.shtml?5-daynl?large#contents

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10. 

    PV User

    July 22, 2014 at 11:07 pm

    
    

    THE ONGOING “explosion” in electricity production from photovoltaic (PV) systems means Barbados is on course to save $6 million in foreign exchange this year.

    However, given what he saw as several cost challenges likely to emerge by year-end for these independent producers and the Barbados Light & Power Company (BL&P), a local economist is recommending the introduction of a special tariff to level the playing field.

    Adrian Carter, the recent recipient of the De La Rue Scholarship, and who is employed as a market analyst by BL&P, was speaking this morning at the Central Bank’s 34th annual review seminar at the Radisson Aquatica Resort.

    “What is happening that we really need to address is that it can lead to a spiral of increased costs in the market because, as individuals install these systems, it reduces the utility’s sales, hence it reduces the utility’s revenue or contribution towards covering its costs,” he said.

    “The utility has no choice but to cover its costs by increasing rates to those customers who are purchasing electricity from the system and this would be proportionately felt more on those customers who do not have PV installations.”

    His solution was a “a bi-compass tariff in which PV customers are compensated for all of the energy that they produce from their PV systems at the avoided costs and all of the energy that they consume internally they are charged at a retail tariff.”

    “By doing it this way, by regulating the market in this fashion, what will happen is that the utility would be able to recover all of the costs of maintaining the network,” he added noting that this method was a fairer one. (SC)

    http://www.nationnews.com/articles/view/solar-challenge/

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11. 

    Bajan Yankee

    July 22, 2014 at 11:19 pm

    
    

    #By NEIL HARTNELL

    #Tribune Business Editor

    #nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

    #A Bahamian provider has “high hopes” that a $600 million waste-to-energy plant will deliver the solutions this nation requires, while again expressing concerns that the Government had been less than transparent.

    #Ginny McKinney, Waste Not’s principal, told Tribune Business that “as a Bahamian I’d be extremely happy” if Stellar Waste-to-Energy delivered on its twin promises of lower energy costs and remediation of the New Providence landfill.

    #Yet, as with the separate landfill management contract that the Christie administration has agreed with Renew Bahamas, Ms McKinney said Stellar’s signed Letter of Intent (LOI) with the Ministry of Works had generated “the same undercover kind of feeling”.

    #She implied that the Government had effectively reneged on a promise to issue a public tender for waste-to-energy plant bids, which was given to the consortium of Bahamian waste service providers that Waste Not was part of.

    #And the Government’s decision to sign an LOI with Stellar, while not a ‘done deal’, raises numerous questions about its energy sector plans. The move raises issues about both the Bahamas Electricity Corporation (BEC) restructuring and renewable energy policy; its ultimate aims for the landfill; and whether the Ministry of Works and Ministry of the Environment are pulling in the same direction.

    #And the Government’s seeming decision not to put waste-to-energy out to public tender, apart from denying it the opportunity to see if better bids exist, revives the ‘lack of transparency’ concerns raised in the US’s controversial Investment Climate report on the Bahamas.

    #Indeed, the most transparent person in this process has been Stellar’s chief executive, Dr Fabrizio Zanaboni. He disclosed his plans, and 12-14 month talks with the Government, in an interview with Tribune Business that was published on November 21, 2013.

    #Dr Zanaboni revealed then much of the details now contained in the ‘agreement in principle’ with the Ministry of Works, namely that the proposed plant would involve a $500-$600 million investment. It would also create 2,000 construction jobs over the 18-month build-out timeframe, and 450-500 permanent jobs.

    #Separating Stellar Waste-To-Energy from concerns over how the Government has handled the process, Ms McKinney said Dr Zanaboni had been “consistent” with the details of his proposal.

    #“I know nothing negative about them,” she added of Stellar. “I hope it is good and they can prove it. I have high hopes, and hope it’s good.

    #“As far as we’re concerned, if this real, true and they can deliver, just as a Bahamian I’d be extremely happy for it. But we have to see the numbers crunched, have to understand the waste, and we have to have Bahamian ownership in whatever flies. If they can deliver what they’re saying, we can all be very happy.”

    #Dr Zanaboni last November said Stellar had been having discussions on its proposal with the “highest levels” of government, including Prime Minister Perry Christie and the Energy Task Force, over a 14-15 month period.

    #The company, which is registered in the Bahamas and has offices in Nassau, had contracted APP Tetronics, a waste-to-energy plasma technology specialist, and intended to fund a $200,000 waste analysis study of the New Providence landfill.

    #This study, to be conducted by APP, was to analyse the waste composition at the landfill and examine the possibility of building a 50-80 megawatt (MW) plasma plant. Some 1,500 metric tons of solid waste per day would be needed to generate this amount of electricity.

    #This, again, is the same proposal contained in the Letter of Intent. This agreement, while an important step, does not mean the Stellar proposal is guaranteed to happen, as this will be contingent on numerous other conditions being fulfilled.

    #Ms McKinney suggested the outstanding studies references by the Letter of Intent would focus on determining the volume and content of the landfill’s waste streams, and how much energy could be derived from them.

    #“The only reservation I have is it did seem a large investment for that amount of waste,” Ms McKinney told Tribune Business of the Stellar waste-to-energy proposal.

    #“It’s much larger than our investment, which was around $120 million, and we were only looking at 17 Mega Watts (MW) that we could get for power using a fluoridised bed.

    #“If they can get that much energy out of it, fantastic. We were more conservative; way more conservative. If they can produce that amount of energy, that’s way more than we can produce.”

    #Stellar, though, is planning to employ plasma technology in a dual gasification process to convert waste into energy. And Ms McKinney said the $2.6 billion Baha Mar expansion might provide the waste volumes it is seeking.

    #Waste Not, together with Bahamas Waste, Impact and United Sanitation, had formed the Bahamas Renewable Energy Resources (BRER) consortium, which had submitted its own landfill management solution to the Government together with a waste-to-energy plant proposal.

    #The consortium, and at least four other groups, did similar without the Government issuing a formal Request for Proposal (RFP) and tender to specify what it wanted. And Ms McKinney suggested that Stellar had merely done the same thing.

    #“When there’s a window, you just try to fill it,” she said. Ms McKinney said the proposed $0.20 per kilowatt (KWh) price that Stellar will sell its electricity to BEC at was the same as the BRER consortium’s.

    #But again, lamenting the Government’s failure to follow through on pledges to stage an open waste-to-energy RFP, Ms McKinney said: “We were obviously not the chosen ones.

    #“I don’t know what to say. It’s all the same kind of undercover kind of feel. They [the Government] said there was going to be Renew Bahamas, and then there was going to be a tender process for waste-to-energy and we could put in a bid again when it got there.”

    #The BRER group’s inclusion of a waste-to-energy plant in its landfill management proposal was cited by the Government as the reason for its rejection, the Christie administration saying it did not want to move that far yet. Yet it has seemingly done just that with Stellar.

    #“I also feel as if governments feel it’s their country,” Ms McKinney added. “They move the goalposts all the time, and we have to scurry around trying to fulfill what we can fulfill.

    #“It’s strange. Maybe if we knew the full story, we’d say: ‘Oh, that makes sense’. What a tangled web we weave.”

    #Ms McKinney also questioned how any deal with Stellar would work alongside the contract given to Renew Bahamas for landfill remediation and to study waste streams.

    #Renew Bahamas is also constructing a recycled materials manufacturing facility, aiming to make finished products from landfill waste. That venture, as previously revealed by Tribune Business, is designed to generate $10 million in annual profits, split equally between the Government and the company.

    #It thus appears possible that Renew Bahamas and Stellar might be in direct competition for the landfill’s waste streams. Ms McKinney queried whether Renew Bahamas, as the landfill manager, would sell refuse-derived fuel to Stellar – a move that would work against the ultimate goal of reducing electricity prices.

    #Dr Zanaboni’s previous comments to Tribune Business also raise questions over whether Stellar would be able to work with Renew Bahamas, as he describes his proposal as superior.

    #“We made them aware that our proposal, in many ways, is even more beneficial because we can do what they do and much more, because we can immediately implement waste-to-energy,” Dr Zanaboni said of the Government.

    #“It’s up to the Government on what they want to do. The Government is fully aware now of the advantage of our proposal and it’s up to them to see if they want to integrate our proposal with RENEW Bahamas.

    #“We can produce an integration and level of sophistication I don’t think RENEW Bahamas would be able to provide.”

    #The Waste Not principal also raised the question of whether the Stellar LOI was intended “to cover their [the Government’s] backs”, and “take the load of” whoever won the bid to manage and overhaul BEC’s power generation assets.

    #Indeed, the Stellar agreement does play into a narrative that Tribune Business is increasingly hearing – that the Government may give Carolina-based Power Secure a management contract for BEC’s transmission and distribution business, but shy away from the part-privatisation of the power plants/generation side.

    #A waste-to-energy contract with Stellar, apart from promising reduced prices, could be a ‘Plan B’ option if the Government decides not to go through with the generation privatisation. It would help to ease the burden on the ageing Blue Hills and Clifton Pier power plants.

    #Yet the LOI also goes against the Government’s previous policy pronouncements, namely that it would not look at renewable energy – and multiple such proposals previously submitted to it – until the BEC restructuring process was completed.

    #It is also interesting that Stellar appears to have been negotiating with the Ministry of Works, headed by Deputy Prime Minister Philip Davis and parliamentary secretary, Renward Wells.

    #While they have ministerial responsibility for BEC, it is the Ministry of the Environment and Kenred Dorsett who have the same for both renewable energy and the landfill. The Stellar deal thus raises questions of whether both ministries, and their respective ministers, are on the same page when it comes to these issues.

    #Tribune Business was unable to obtain the answers to these questions, as all three politicians did not return Tribune Business messages seeking comment.

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12. 

    Bajan Yankee

    July 22, 2014 at 11:20 pm

    
    

    Interesting blog
    http://sustainablebarbados.tumblr.com

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13. 

    Stew Peas

    July 23, 2014 at 12:58 pm

    
    

    Mr. David Ellis of VOB, I think you should focus on the state of the economy and the fact that that Barbados will never get back its glory days. Instead your are so concerned about Kerrie and Mia and what is happening in the BLP. Look at what you just read from Moodys. Did it say anything about the Opposition , Mia and Kerrie? Give me a break.

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