Published On: Tuesday, December 15, 2009

By CHESTER ROBARDS

Business Reporter    

crobards@tribunemedia.net

THE PRIME Minister said yesterday that Abaco and other islands cannot wait for the implementation of renewable energy sources to expand their power distribution. Three new fossil fuel-burning power plants are scheduled to come on stream within a few months in Abaco, Eleuthera and Bimini.

Hubert Ingraham told reporters shortly before his flight to Copenhagen for the United Nations Climate Change Conference that those new power stations, which may burn a controversial fuel called ‘Bunker C’, are necessary for the population  in those areas.

The erection of the three new fossil fuel-burning power plants come while the Bahamas is taking a stand against global warming at the year’s meeting on climate change.

The Caribbean, the Bahamas and other low-lying areas in this region are most at risk from rising sea levels, as the warming of the planet melts land-locked ice at an alarming rate, according to scientists.

Mr Ingraham said CARICOM leaders will come together in Copenhagen to forge a case for global climate change initiatives, especially when it comes to matters that affect the Bahamas and Caribbean.

"My Government also has the urgent task of responding to the multiple challenges, short and long term, posed by global warming,” he said

"Climate change is also a national security issue. It poses a direct and potentially devastating threat to our way of life, our territorial integrity, our economic well-being and our survival. It draws limited resources away from other national priorities, including resources which should be directed towards education, health care, housing and social assistance.”

Environmentally-conscious residents of Abaco have lambasted the Government for their lack of consultation on the new Wilson City power plant, which government said might burn the heavy oil Bunker C.

Wetlands

According to them, the plant is located near extremely sensitive wetlands which are only a few thousand feet from the plant. And despite claims that the plant is two miles from the coast, the reality is that the heated pipeline that will disperse the oil from the tanker to the plant is 2.5 miles away.

From the air, it is apparent that the plant lies within thousands of feet from the coast within dense pine growth. It also lies within a few miles of acres of farm land and the fuel dock only feet from the boundary of a national park, residents say.

Residents who live within two miles say they felt slighted by the Government’s claims that there are no communities within seven miles of the Wilson City site. Though their communities are small they contend that they still stand to be affected by the emissions from burning the Bunker C fuel oil.

The Government’s retort to all these claims is that many other plants throughout the Bahamas now burn the cheap Bunker C oil, and that if the more expensive diesel oil is burned fuel surcharges will have to be increased across the island.

At the moment, residents in New Providence subsidise power production on the Family Islands because of the costs associated with shipping to the islands.

The Prime Minister contends that the new power plant will have pollutant mitigating measures attached to it so as to minimise the immediate impact to the Abaco environment. The Government’s case for immediate fossil fuel power stands on the frequent power failures on the island of Abaco.

"I suppose in the case of Abaco we could have continued with the power cuts we had and the outages, and we could continue to pollute the environment as we are doing now at the station in Marsh Harbour, and we could continue to have all that smoke and what not blow into the community,” said Mr Ingraham.