The new United States Ambassador to Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean, Roger
Nyhus, is highly complimentary in his praise for the move by Antigua and Barbuda
to acquire a new Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) power plant, now under construction
at Crabbes Peninsula.
Ambassador Nyhus was given a tour of the facility Friday afternoon together with
senior government representatives and the owners of Antigua Power Company Ltd,
which along with Eagle LNG out of the United States are jointly building and will
also operate the new power plant in association with APUA.
At the end of the tour, Ambassador Nyhus could not contain his excitement for the
project calling it ‘a gamechanger’ not just for Antigua and Barbuda, but for the
entire Caribbean as well.
“This project is a game-changer for the Antigua and Barbuda, the region and a
positive message to the world. If we can make progress the world, these are
difficult issues and you are making those critical decisions that are so important,”
he said in response to comments by both Foreign Affairs Minister, E.P Chet
Greene and Utilities Minister, Melford Nicholas.
The ambassador queried what was the government’s message to the citizenry and
why they should be excited about the transition to LNG and other energy sources.
Minister Greene noted that the transition is being done in recognition of a global
reality. “Leveraging our environment when we go full wind and solar and the
transition now to LNG is a wonderful move which has attracted the attention of the
people. We therefore continue to do this and to ‘sell’ the message and this calls for
education as well as we must bring the people along in this vision in our transition
to ‘green’ energy; appreciating what energy means in the transition process and
period. Like you, we are excited, and we wish to pass that excitement on to the
people so it’s a shared position of excitement across the country,” he remarked.
For his part, Utilities Minister Nicholas focused on the economics of renewable
energy especially against the backdrop of the several major conflicts taking place
in the world which have the potential of having an inflationary impact on prices of
several commodities here in Antigua and Barbuda.
“Many see the move to renewable energy as helping the environment, but we have
to remember that the Caribbean produces less than one percent of global
greenhouse gases, so the real motive for us has to be economics. Against the
backdrop of what’s taking place in the world, if more and more of our energy
comes from renewable sources, that would be a plus for us. There has to be a mix
of wind, solar and turning to less harmful sources such as LNG,” he stated.
The US ambassador also fully supported the public/private partnership in
undertaking the LNG Power-plant and as Minister Nicholas stated, there are times
when to undertake certain projects the government will have to turn to the private
sector to become its partner as is the case with the current project.
The tour party included APCL’s Francis Hadeed, Aziz Hadeed, Calid Hassad and
attorney, Dr. Errol Cort.
