Without cheap, affordable, clean and reliable energy, Guyana cannot develop a society that can live in and enjoy the benefits of a developed country. We need energy to support a manufacturing industry and to build other pillars of the economy to provide enough well-paid jobs for our people. While the experts have predicted an energy need of more than 500 MW by 2030, the potential investments for economic development in Guyana will need in excess of 500MW. Myriad manufacturing investments in Guyana are not feasible unless Guyana can guarantee a supply of affordable, reliable energy. The potential for Guyana to develop a fabrication industry to supply materials for the OIL and GAS industry is not realizable unless the energy industry grows by leaps and bounds. For example, the $US50M investment at Enmore to fabricate needs for the OIL and GAS industry is not sustainable unless there is enough and the cost of energy is dramatically reduced.
We now know Guyana has OIL and GAS wealth that has already brought billions into the treasury and will continue for decades to bring billions of US dollars into the economy. We now know better, even after years of bringing in billions of dollars into the economy, gold deposits worth more than $US35B will contribute to the economy. We know our carbon reserves are worth more than $US190B in future earnings. We know silica sand deposits are worth more than $35B. Our water resources and agriculture are enough to sustain our country as a food-secured country and to position us in the coming years to obtain a significant share of CARICOM’s annual $US5B food import substitution market. At the same time, manganese, diamond, bauxite and quarry resources add to Guyana’s phenomenal natural resources. But without an energy resource to help build our country with an economy that takes advantage of these resources, we will remain as an under-developed country.
The Amaila Hydroelectricity Project is not just an option to meet the energy needs of the country for affordable and reliable energy, it is an imperative. Without the initial 165MW hydroelectricity plant at Amaila, reaching the energy needs of the country in the near and long-term is impossible. But Amaila, judged by the experts to be a sound project, has been the victim of charlatans whose intention is simple – stop Amaila at all cost. The motivation is simple – stop Amaila so that Guyana continues to be under-developed. This harsh indictment might appear too blunt, but it is true. It is nothing short of unpatriotic to oppose Amaila without any sound argument and despite the experts endorsing the project.
Had the project proceeded in 2013/2014, by today, Guyana would have had enough affordable, reliable and clean energy to meet our total present needs and to reduce energy cost by at least 50% today. A small group of naysayers and gripers stopped the project when the APNU/AFC controlled Parliament in 2013/2014. By rejecting the budget for Amaila, APNU/AFC killed the project. They formally killed Amaila after APNU/AFC took control of the Government. When the parent organization of APNU/AFC, the PNC, killed the train system in 1973, they created a transportation nightmare that, almost 50 years later, we cannot see a solution in sight. The transportation nightmare is now worse. In spite of the new roads being built, no number of new highways and roads will sustain a high middle-income society. The stoppage of Amaila has worse consequences; it would keep Guyana poor for way beyond the lifetimes of all existing generations.
Today, the PNC and their surrogates in APNU and AFC, together with a small group of charlatans, continue their assault on Amaila. One of those charlatans has hijacked a whole media empire to wage war against Guyana’s journey away from being poor to being a high middle-income country, with our lifestyles changing dramatically. This charlatan misrepresents, misinforms with intent to derail Amaila, no matter what the consequences. Fortunately, Guyanese citizens, by-and-large, recognize the significance of Amaila.
This charlatan, for example, is pushing the narrative that Amaila will produce more energy than we need and that the Guyanese people, via GPL, will have to pay for the excess energy even though we do not need it. While it is true that GPL and, therefore, the Guyanese people, will pay for all the energy produced by Amaila, it is also true that all of the present fossil fuel-based energy must be replaced as Guyana meets our commitment for zero use of fossil fuel, per an agreement in the Paris Treaty to reach zero-fossil fuel-based energy by 2025. Clearly Guyana is not going to reach that commitment. But with Amaila in place by 2027 and with a shore-based gas energy plant in place by 2024, Guyana will reduce fossil fuel use for energy generation by 70% by 2027.
The possibility of not needing as much energy is based only on Guyana’s failure to develop a society that feels like and looks like a high middle-income country. The Irfaan Ali government understands that without a surplus of energy, Guyana will fail. While the charlatans desperately try to stop development, President Irfaan Ali and the PPP government are determined that Guyana’s wealth must ensure a highly developed country that supports better lives for all its citizens.
