The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

We are an island nation that has gone from fairly consistent power generation in our capital city to having power outages every single day.

This is the present state of the energy regime here in our Bahamaland right now.

We have sun, sand, and sea, but yet we have no solar farms to harness free energy from our nearest star, no large scale biomass/biofuel generation from plants like Cannabis that we can grow sustainably in our soil, and no wave energy generation units that would be powered almost perpetually by the strong ocean currents that run between our islands.

Modern Energy reform will be one of the primary contributors to the future success of the Bahamian economy. We Bahamians cannot continue sitting idly by and letting successive administrations repeat the mistake of relying on fossil fuels.

Yes, The Bahamas has options that easily could be implemented. There is no reason for our energy policy to be rigidly set in the stone ages, beholden to outside resources when we are more than capable of generating enough renewable energy to meet and exceed our needs.

Independence isn’t just a word. It is shown by a nation’s actions. The Bahamas at present is extremely reliant upon the energy policies of foreign oil-producing nations.

Wouldn’t an independent government seek to break free from such obvious controls?

When oil prices go up, so does the price of everything in the Bahamian economy. Presently we import over 80% of what we and our 7+ million annual tourists consume.

Ships and planes run on fuel to get goods here to these islands. Stores pay high utility bills to keep their power going, so that customers can shop. Customers mostly use their cars or public transportation to get to these stores.

The bottom line is that we rely on outside resources to power our society.

Dependency on others is not a good look for any nation.

Energy regimes affect everything in today’s world. Shouldn’t energy reform be a key focus for governments globally, especially small island states that are now facing the brunt of climate change? It is time for The Bahamas to create and maintain a modern, truly independent, renewable and sustainable energy regime. One that is agile enough to adapt to our growing population and friendly enough to the environment to significantly decrease humanity’s collective affect on the planet.

Anything less would be uncivilised.

YORICK BROWN

Nassau,

August 11, 2019.