Published On:Wednesday, April 07, 2010

FOUR months after permission was granted for opponents of the Bahamas Electricity Corporation's Wilson City power plant to seek a judicial review of the Government's decision to build the plant, that hearing gets underway today in Freeport.

At the end of the three-day review proceedings against the Prime Minister, ministers of the Environment, Health, Public Works and Transport, The South Abaco District Council, the Attorney General and BEC, the judge is expected to give his judgment on whether the Government was correct or otherwise in its decision-making and handling of the Abaco power plant project.

It is likely that the findings will be largely of use in determining the way forward in future cases of this kind, as the trial, before Justice Hartman Longley of the Supreme Court, comes at a time when the construction of the $105 million plant is now almost 80 per cent complete.

Development

The judicial review was sought by Responsible Development for Abaco, a company that has been created by civic minded Abaconians and Grand Bahamians to be a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) to oppose the development of the Wilson City Power Plant in Abaco.

When RDA applied for the review, which attempts to stop the construction of the Wilson City Power Plant, they also asked for all work on the plant to be stopped until the review was able to go ahead, warning that the facility would -- as it now is -- be substantially finished by the time the review went ahead.

RDA, which is represented by Fred Smith, QC, contends that the people of Abaco were not adequately consulted on the decision to locate the plant where it has been constructed and to burn the controversial "Bunker C" fuel that it was initially set to use to create power.

In what has been seen as a victory for RDA prior to the review, BEC has confirmed that it has changed its mind on "Bunker C", considered more environmentally damaging than other fuels, and will now use automotive diesel oil at the plant.