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BELCO's plans to expand their generating plant on their site in Pembroke are indicative of the pains Bermuda will experience from current and future economic expansion. Unfortunately, the pains of BELCO's expansion will fall disproportionately on BELCO's neighbours.

It was predictable that energy production and delivery would become the next battleground for environmental issues. Local (and global) populations are growing; an increase in consumers. Energy-using devices are growing in number and size; an increase in consumption. And the world's primary source of energy, fossil fuels, is finite and nearing peak exploitation. The global search for new or alternative energy sources is sparking conflicts in energy policies and procurement. Oil supplies have been the dominant issue in several recent wars.

In Bermuda, our electricity is generated by a privately owned utility. The only regulatory body BELCO has to answer to is the Price Control Commission. That Commission used to hold public hearings on requests by BELCO for rate increases. Sometime during the 1980s the government of the day acceded to BELCO's wishes and cut off public access to and involvement in the rate process.

Before and since, Bermuda's energy policy has been plotted by the energy producer, BELCO. The company collects information about its impact on the surrounding community - noise, vibration, air pollution and contamination of water tanks at least - but that information is not available to the public it

affects.

The company decides what it will build and where; what fuels it will use and their source; and whether, when and how it will (or will not) control its emissions. It is the company that has now decided how much and where to place a major expansion of its existing plant.

Telling aspect

The most telling aspect of the expansion is the increase in smokestacks from two to five - a 150 per cent increase.

BELCO's neighbours can expect more than double the emissions - smoke, smell, brown skies, noise, vibration, heat, fallout - and possibly double the infrastructure of traffic, storage and general industrial ugliness.

The most aggravating component of this issue is that most of our economic expansion is providing jobs, salaries, housing, transportation, and so on for imported workers more than for locals. Bermuda's economy created 739 more jobs in 2006 than there were in 2005. Of those new jobs, 553 (75 per cent) were filled by non-Bermudians with no local affiliation. When non-Bermudian spouses and permanent resident are included, 667 or 90 per cent of new jobs went to non-Bermudians. Put another way, only ten per cent of the new jobs created last year went to born Bermudians. And, just so we keep things in perspective, this is not the fault of those imported workers, but of local leaders whose policies are overheating the economy.

We may like the image of having new luxury five-star hotels but the reality is that the luxury may exact a larger cost from us than we can afford. Luxury hotels employ more people per tourist; consume more food, lighting, air-conditioning and heating per tourist; and generate more waste per tourist.

We have to consider whether we want the whole of Pembroke Valley to become an industrial power generation plant just so that electricity can be wasted at luxury hotels.

We also have to consider whether we want the Island's energy policy and plans to be wholly in the hands of a private energy company, whose interests may be in conflict with the public interest. Because energy is the core non-human ingredient enabling our community to function, energy policy should be part of public policy-making.

Calls by Greenrock and other environmental organizations for an independent commission supported by the Bermuda government and BELCO are on target. We need a Comprehensive Energy Policy and Plan before any major expansion is considered.

And a major component of that policy must be increased energy efficiency and reduced energy consumption.

Meanwhile, the public in general, and BELCO's neighbours in particular, should write in their objections to the expansion.

Objections should reach the Director, Department of Planning, Government Administration Building, 30 Parliament Street, Hamilton HM12 (email [email protected]) before 5pm on December 7 2007.[[In-content Ad]]

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