Despite the good news for residents of Grand Bahama contained in Prime Minister Perry Christie’s address to the Progressive Liberal Party’s 48th national convention, the government is running a serious risk of having its credibility severely tarnished by vacillating on the granting of a licence for the construction of a natural gas pipeline from The Bahamas to Florida.
Clearly, the message that inaction of this measure is sending to members of the multi-billion-dollar corporate club to which the three companies bidding to construct the pipeline belong is not one that the government should want in circulation as it seeks to lure billion-dollar investments to this country.
To be sure, it was extremely good news that Mr. Christie was able to announce at the convention that the Ginn Development Company out of Orlando, Florida, is proposing to pump millions into developing a world-class resort, condominium, golf-course, residential and yachting community on a 2,150-acre of property in West Grand Bahama. The proposal, he said, is for a joint venture with the present investors of Old Bahama Bay to develop the old Sammons property, and he projected that the total investment in West Grand Bahama would be $2.5 billion over 18 years.
Heaven knows, the West End community certainly needs a financial injection of this magnitude to restore it to a vibrant and productive community.
Mr. Christie said other developments were set for Rum Cay, Exuma, Bimini, Abaco, the Berry Islands, Andros, Cat Island, San Salvador and Eleuthera. Should all this come to fruition, The Bahamas can look forward to a sustained period of robust economic growth and development.
One would have expected Mr. Christie to announce that the government had reached a decision on the granting of the licence to construct the natural gas pipeline from Grand Bahama to Florida.
For, if all the factors are considered as to which company is better capable and qualified to get that job done, the runaway favourite has got to be Tractebel, a company with 30-plus years of experience operating LNG facilities and which has developed LNG projects around the world.
Tractebel’s Calypso LNG Project includes an LNG receiving terminal and regasification facility to be located in the industrial district of Freeport, and the project is expected to add more than $170 million to the Grand Bahama economy during construction and $33 million annually during operation.
Given that all of the environmental and safety concerns have been addressed by Tractebel, why the government is marking time on giving it the go-ahead is baffling. Certainly, the objections raised by Ambassador of the Environment Keod Smith seemed to be more related to internal differences within the government rather than any genuine concern about the safety of this project or any possible negative environmental impact.
Surely, Mr. Christie’s good news announced at the convention would have been infinitely better news not only for residents of Grand Bahama, but for the country, had the awarding of the natural gas pipeline to Tractebel been included in his announcement.
Editorial, The Nassau Guardian
