As we struggle to lift ourselves out of our centuries-old underdeveloped state by our own (newly-found oil) bootstraps, your Eyewitness wants to bring to the fore the matter of securing the energy to (literally) fuel the activities that would deliver the good life. Everything that moves in the universe needs energy; and the more energy we have, the more we can do. So, in the beginning, we started taming animals like oxen and horses and using them to do work we didn’t have the energy to do on our lonesome; hence the word “horsepower” augmenting “manpower”!!
Not that they forgot about “manpower”!! What do you think slaves and indentureds provided??
Then, after thousands of years, some wise guy thought about using the energy from wind and running water to turn wheels that grind our grains and such like. Then came the big breakthrough of the steam engine, where they burnt coal to turn the water into steam in order to turn all those gears that moved whatever contraption we could think about — like ships and trains etc!!
Anyhow, two things happened. We started to burn all sorts of fossil fuels in addition to coal. In our sugar plantations, they burnt the cane husk (bagasse) to produce steam. But the big discovery was that petroleum of various grades and natural gases could provide energy much more efficiently!! They could move the machinery now placed in “factories” to make all sorts of things to “improve our quality of life.
But, in the last few decades, we realized that all actions have reactions. Burning all those fossil fuels produced an increasing level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, and this led to global warming; which now threatens our survival – even though we desperately want to catch up with the “developed countries”, which became so by burning fossil fuels.
So, what to do?? Well, to your Eyewitness, there’s only one solution – the developed countries can now start preaching and practising to their people a Gandhian “small and less is beautiful” philosophy, and quit burning all those fossil fuels. In the meantime, those of us in the sh*thole countries can catch up with them by getting as much energy as we can from running water, wind and solar – but use fossil fuels to fill any gaps.
This is especially true for our country, which just struck an ocean of oil and gas sloshing around off our Atlantic Coast!! It is beyond ridiculous for some to demand that we leave our oil in the ground while we’re still in the relative stone age!!
…gas
After decades of promises, we’re about to get electricity cheap enough so we won’t have to choose between keeping our lights on or eating bread!! Remember when Burnham hocked the sugar levy money and promised us hydro-power up the Mazaruni?? We got HYDRO all right!! Anyhow, during an earlier PPP incarnation, they’d put together all the pieces – plans, financing, contractors, etc – to deliver cheap power from the Amaila Falls. But guess who torpedoed that plan?? The PNC, of course!!
But you gotta hand it to the PPP; they never give up on a noble goal, and securing cheap energy is as noble as you can get. At a minimum, we’ll match global manufacturing costs!!!
So, approval for the Government’s request for a loan from the US ExIm credit facility – for a US company to build a 300MW power plantusing our natural gas – was awaited anxiously!! This is especially since some of the gas would be used as feeder stock to start a petrochemical industry!!
The sloth of the American bureaucracy in approving the loan had kept us on tenterhooks, but we just learnt that we’ll get US$509M out of US$650 needed.
The Chinese would’ve provided all the money and had the project running a year ago!!
…political energy
As mentioned, energy keeps us going. So, could it be that the leaders of the Opposition parties just don’t have the energy to match the President’s, as they keep bleeding supporters to the PPP? Red Bull??
