Former Minister of State for Finance James Smith, who is also a director of Bahamas Petroleum Company (BPC), predicts that the government will exhaust its capacity to help those in need during what is projected to be a protracted economic downturn caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, and suggests it would be foolhardy for The Bahamas not to exploit its oil resource if BPC’s exploratory drill set for later this month confirms oil exists in commercial quantities.
Smith said, “We’re going to run out of our capacity to basically provide basic services to our people, and of course there is no guarantee that we’re going to find oil, but even if you do you can leverage it and you can let the people then decide — ‘would you prefer us to just go on and hope something happens and jobs will come back again and maybe a new technology [will emerge] or should we use this resource we’ve just discovered to try and relieve the pressure on the country?’”
He predicted what the majority of Bahamians would say.
“Nobody is going to be starving, out of a job and sitting on barrels of oil,” he said.
“Barbados has drilled successfully for oil offshore, Trinidad, Guyana, Mexico and all over the world.
“Yes, there have been spills etc., etc., I’d be the first to admit to that, but the one time The Bahamas may have an opportunity to determine whether or not it can improve living standards by using a natural resource within its borders, you’re telling me don’t even look for it?
“Afterwards, if you find it, then you’re going to have to make that decision against everybody else, whether you are going to exploit it or not; but what they (opponents to drilling) are saying is don’t look, and it’s a very fine point that they jump from to talking about what if there is an oil spill on one of our beaches. Well, what if one of those tankers [that pass through The Bahamas all the time] overturn?”
Smith said a sovereign state has the right to determine whether it has resources that can be commercially exploited to the benefit of the country.
“That’s not the job of pressure groups,” he insisted.
Claiming the approval process for BPC’s environmental authorization and other permits for the exploratory drilling was flawed and that there was no public consultation as required under law, Our Islands, Our Future, a coalition of concerned Bahamian citizens, local businesses and local and international environmentalists, last month asked BPC to hold off on its plan or face legal action.
But BPC said through its lawyers at Graham Thompson it will not undertake to suspend exploratory drilling and will vigorously oppose any application for an injunction and leave to apply for judicial review whether it is joined as a respondent or as an interested party.
Numerous groups and individuals have expressed concerns about the planned exploration with opposition growing in intensity as the drillship, Stena IceMAX, nears The Bahamas to drill the Perseverance #1 well 90 miles from Andros.
Yesterday, the environmental groups Waterkeeper Bahamas Ltd. and Coalition to Protect Clifton Bay (Save The Bays) applied for leave for a judicial review of the government’s decisions to authorize the drilling.
Risks
The Bahamas National Trust (BNT) in October said while it understands that complex negotiations may have resulted in the government being legally bound to honor its commitment with BPC, the organization has very serious concerns about The Bahamas allowing the exploration for possible exploitation of fossil fuels.
The drill site is within rowing distance of the Cay Sal Bank, one of the most ecologically productive and economically important marine systems in the country, BNT noted.
The Cay Sal Bank Marine Protected Area (MPA) was declared a protected area in September 2015.
The globally significant declaration was in fulfilment of The Bahamas’ commitment to protecting 20 percent of the near shore marine environment, BNT noted.
It was also in fulfilment of inviolate obligations under the Global Environment Facility (GEF) Full Sized project.
BNT pointed out Cay Sal has thriving marine life inclusive of commercially important species including some of the last remaining viable populations of the queen conch.
“The importance of the Cay Say Bank for biodiversity and the fishing industry in The Bahamas cannot be overstated,” it said.
“Because of its strategic importance, any pollution of the area would be devastating for The Bahamas and its fishing industry.
“The BNT understands that these historic leases were issued before some of the current UN and national environmental protocols and goals were established.
“It is also cognizant of the fact that the government of The Bahamas must consider economic development and has difficult decisions to make balancing economic activity whilst simultaneously protecting the environment.”
But it said based on the country’s commitment to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, and the threat of climate change to our very existence, it strongly believes that The Bahamas should not, in 2020, be allowing the exploitation of fossil fuels within our country.
Scare tactics
While not naming any particular “pressure group”, Smith, however, dismissed “scare tactics” by some environmental interests, whose agenda he suggested is questionable.
He said, “At some point, the Bahamian people, by plebiscite or otherwise, or the people who they put to represent them will have to determine if there is oil there whether we just leave the well capped and we basically wait for something to come by other than oil and we still find a way to repay all of these — the government is going to borrow almost a billion dollars if not [more] over this period.
“Next year they will have to do the same thing because you have to feed these people, people are still on line getting food being handed out.”
The former minister, who spoke with us before the court filing, warned that the government is borrowing way more than it can afford to pay back because foreign exchange is not coming in due to the significant impact COVID-19 has had on the tourism sector.
“And that’s not going to come back for another year or two,” said Smith, adding that while he is not an anti-environmentalist, he tries to see things from a practical standpoint.
“Things are going to get worse before they’re going to get better. I think they’re already saying they’re constrained in food stamps, handouts the government is giving people to cover themselves and that’s going to get worse and worse and worse.
“We’ve already gone through a series of downgrades making it much more expensive for the government to borrow, but it’s going to reach a point where no one is going to want to lend us money because they will have doubts that we can repay them, and so now when we reach that stage when it begins to affect not just your at-risk people, the vulnerable ones and low income or no income, it’s going to start touching on your middle income and high income, and I think it will be a harder argument to make that ‘oh, we know it’s there but we’re not going to use it knowing that all other countries are using it’.”
In a recent response to similar comments Smith made recently in The Tribune, Save The Bays Chairman Joseph Darville charged that Smith is “shockingly uninformed” on the issue.
“Perhaps most frightening is Smith’s suggestion that we shouldn’t worry about the drill project, as it is nothing more than an exploratory well. Can this BPC director really not be aware that the Deepwater Horizon disaster was also ‘just’ an exploratory well? Can he not know that exploratory wells are among the most dangerous of all the petrochemical disasters waiting to happen?” Darville asked.
“The truth is that there is no such thing as safe oil drilling and we have too much to lose in this country to bet everything on a roll of the dice. Our economy is totally dependent upon industries derived from the beauty and abundance of our fragile marine environment.”
On the issue of “safe oil drilling” the opposition leader, Philip Brave Davis, whose law firm previously represented BPC, in an interview with Eyewitness News, reaffirmed his support of oil drilling recently.
“Once we follow the regulations that are in place, both parties (Progressive Liberal Party and Free National Movement) have committed to ensuring that if it exists we should exploit it for the benefit of the Bahamian people. I share that view, once it can be exploited in an environmentally friendly manner,” Davis said.
The post Why starve if we have oil? appeared first on The Nassau Guardian.
source https://thenassauguardian.com/why-starve-if-we-have-oil/
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