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Last Updated: Mar 14, 2018 - 3:26:01 PM |
Save The Bays Chairman Joe Darville
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Declaring that a proposed oil refinery, storage and distribution facility “could wipe out life as we know it in Grand Bahama”, Save The Bays today became the latest environmental advocacy organization to urge government to quash the deal that has aroused national concern for life, marine and land resources and the country’s reputation.
“Everything about the deal with Oban Energies for a proposed $5.5 billion crude oil refinery, storage and distribution facility sends up red flags,” said Save The Bays Chairman Joe Darville. “The absence of public consultation, lack of transparency, no environmental impact assessment prior to signing the Heads of Agreement, no environmental management plan, even the legally troubling background of the face of Oban Energies. But nothing is of greater concern than what a crude oil refinery could do to the people of Grand Bahama because of its location less than 50 miles east of Freeport. With the prevailing southeast winds, a plant that handles four million barrels of crude oil annually could wipe out life in Grand Bahama as we know it with toxic fumes and discharges in the air like living in the shadow of a constantly burning dump. You cannot make crude oil clean and our fear is that our air will become so filled with smog, our lungs assaulted, our beaches and wetlands and parks polluted, our wildlife and marine life impacted.
“We have to ask ourselves, ‘Are we so desperate for jobs that we are willing to trade the health of our people and the future of our children and their children?’ I pray we are not so desperate as to make a decision that we, and the nation, will live to regret and from which we may never recover. Is it any wonder that no new oil refineries have been built in the United States and now they want to come to The Bahamas for a project that puts our citizens and residents at risk for fossil fuels while the rest of the world is moving toward renewables? What could our leaders who agreed to this be thinking and how can we, as a people, tell them that our voices must be heard and our message heeded because this is a matter of the quality of life for everyone in Grand Bahama?
“If they really cared about the people of Grand Bahama, they would care about life and health that would be endangered by dirty jobs and the byproducts of those jobs.”
Darville fired his barrage one day after Bahamas National Trust (BNT) issued a similar statement saying that it could not foresee any circumstances under which the Trust would support the Oban Energies proposed project, citing among other matters its proximity to three national parks.
Noted environmentalist Sam Duncombe, recent recipient of the American Embassy Woman of Courage Award, also expressed “grave concern” and urged the deal be killed as have others, including BREEF. Save The Bays added to the growing list of those respected organisations and individuals begging government to reconsider the deal it signed in February with a Palm Beach County-based company whose website said it was created to serve The Bahamas and its clients.
Though not precisely pinpointed, the area described in the documents that have been tabled places the proposed project at East End where each of the nearby national parks captures and protects features uniquely abundant in their terrain, tall sand dunes, wetlands, an unexplored cave system, and magnificent coastal areas rich in flora and fauna.
“When government announced it was going to rebuild storm-ravaged Ragged Island in the southern Bahamas with sustainable design and renewable energy sources, creating the first totally green island in the region, we showered them with congratulations,” said Darville. “We thought the growing sensitivity to the need to protect our fragile marine and land resources was growing. Now this deal with Oban Energies is a return to a re-run of technology that failed, a stunning disappointment by leaders we thought were taking us into a better tomorrow but instead appear to be marching us blindfolded into the past. We urge them to reconsider. This deal that would allow Oban Energies to refine, store and distribute up to 20 million barrels of oil a year by Year Four is a threat to our future and an embarrassment for The Bahamas.”
Radio airwaves, print and social media have been chockablock with comments urging government to reconsider its support for the project that sources say cannot be denied because of environmental concerns.
“There is an escape clause in everything,” said Darville, a retired educator, Al Gore-trained climate change leader and respected civil society advocate. “Even Houdini escaped and he only had one life to save. This government has a nation to rescue from potential disaster and we hope they act quickly and resolutely.”
© Copyright 2018 by thebahamasweekly.com
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