Dear Editor,
And so, parliamentarian Maurice Lake has made a speech in which he says directly that GEBE needs to support rather than, in polite language, screw its solar clients. Good for him for getting on the right side of what is a legitimate and critical issue. Combine that with a supportive, if weak, editorial in this paper and if you are a solar client like me, you might get that warm and fuzzy feeling like something positive is about to happen. Ok, everybody that believes that raise your hand. I don’t believe it for a minute because it is a typical posture and response that critical issues get over and over.
Somebody blocks a beach access? Outrage at the political level; chest beating and speeches; Editorials; letters to the Editor; demands for a beach policy (that a sixth grader could write effectively in 30 minutes); and what happens after years of “debate?” Nothing!
Name your issue and it’s always the same. I fear, and feel with near certainty, that this is the case here again.
A critical and vital public issue where a PUBLIC (and I emphasize PUBLIC ) utility who is ostensibly under the control and authority of the government and who is charged with the absolute responsibility of adhering to a “good public policy” is acting in what some might describe as a borderline criminal fashion. Their representatives for years have told people that they could install solar and, in so many words, get net metering. They went out of their way to say nobody would get paid for the surplus power and for the record no one is asking to get paid; quite the opposite. To a man, the solar clients are happy to gift any and all surplus energy straight to GEBE to be resold by them at retail and a 100 per cent profit margin.
All we ask is to get what we were promised and what, for three years was reality i.e. net metering. Lots of people spent a huge amount of money in good faith to become energy independent and now, in a capricious, arbitrary and some would say illegal move, GEBE sees fit to go back on their word.
In the United States it would be easy. A consumer would walk into the Government building, meet a nice young lady at the front desk of the Public Utilities Commission and in fifteen minutes file a complaint. By 8:00 the next morning the director of the utility would be cooling his heels in the office of the Attorney General answering some tough questions and facing a state sponsored injunction and some serious fines and penalties.
Who is in charge here? Let’s say, for the sake of discussion, that GEBE announced tomorrow they would no longer sell electricity to anyone of Indian descent and went and took all their meters. Exactly whose job in Government would it be to jump to their feet and shout “They can’t do that! Get me the director on the phone and then send a detective over there to arrest him.” This situation is no different than that. GEBE is acting well outside their concession with this policy and needs to have their leash yanked and pulled back into line. Whose job is that? Who’s in charge here?
So, Minister Lake and Editorial board at the Herald. Prove me wrong. Actually do something about this. Call GEBE on the carpet and hold their feet to the fire. Tell them what they are doing is not only wrong as a matter of law and a direct violation of their concession where they are bound to “good public policy” but ethically, morally and socially as well and force them to reverse this policy. It should not be incumbent on we the consumers to sue them. They work for you and answer to you the Government. It’s your job to sue them. Please, prove me wrong about the futility of all the speeches and chest-beating. Please.
There was some irony in the paper yesterday as well. In my first letter last week, the closing paragraph was an offer to share with GEBE a proposal and plan that I had prepared for a local resort here for a one Megawatt system that could be done complete for four million or so. The paragraph was cut out for space reasons. Ironically, today, here is Anguilla doing the same thing for 3.3 million. Good for them and a clear example of what can be when selfish interests are held in check by a responsible Government and a utility that doesn’t have its head where the sun never shines.
Steven Johnson
