The Roop Column – Our Local Energy Crisis – A Must Fix

Jun 08, 2008 Features / Columnists

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Introduction:
I wrote many columns over the last four years on the subject of Economic Diversification – “Sugar to Ethanol” and “Producing Ethanol – a Guyana Product.” I continue to lobby our government to create programs that will fast track investment in this area.
The Hydro-power alternative which was President Burnham’s dream is still to be realized and the stalled Amalia Falls project that was touted two years ago is yet to get started.
This government has been slow to predict the need for alternative energy and continue to lag behind on initiatives that will move us forward.
The subject of the production of alternative fuel has become a household word as countries struggle to reduce their dependence on foreign oil.
We continue to see the debacle at GPL and their projected loss and which ultimately will have to be passed on to us consumers.
Sadly, here in our own country, we continue to focus on a declining sugar industry as we know it today, instead of working aggressively on an alternative – including the production of ethanol.
Brazil has offered to assist us with the technology since August 5, 2003 when President Jagdeo visited that country.
The need is there for alternative fuel and our small neighbour, Barbados, is putting a major portion of their GDP into ethanol production. The largest producer, Brazil, is offering to assist, why then the resistance by our government?

The Venezuela Issue:
The inability to defend the sovereignty of our republic against the claim by Venezuela on our lands in the Essequibo, and the audacity by this foreign government to prohibit us from drilling for oil, continues to contribute to the stagnation of our economy.
Thus, the dependence on buying foreign oil continues to be a major burden on our citizens due to the increasing prices.

This also prohibits major investments in manufacturing and reduces our local business competitiveness in the global marketplace.

Solving it Ourselves:
We have the ability to solve a portion of our energy crisis with the production of alternative fuel. I have met with major ethanol investors in New York who has shown great interest in Guyana’s potential for this type of production.
Recently, a well known Indian investor contacted me on how he can obtain land in Guyana to plant more sugar cane for Bio-Fuel. I sent the information to the Minister of Agriculture.
In a previous report written by J. Paltoo of IAST, he outlined the fact that Guyana also has the potential for immense economic gain from producing Biomass pellets utilising Bio-Waste such as saw dust, wood chips, rice husks, rice straw, coconut husks and coconut shells.
Biomass is plant matter, such as trees, grasses, agricultural crops or other biological material. It can be used as a solid fuel or converted into liquid or gaseous forms for the production of electric power, heat, chemicals or fuels.
With the increasing concerns about climate change mitigation and rising oil prices, this is creating unprecedented interest in the development of economical and convenient renewable energy fuels.
Recent advances in biomass feedstock development and conversion technologies have created new opportunities for using agricultural land as a means of producing these renewable fuels in larger quantities than relying on wood and agricultural residues alone.
The report explains that the entire sugar cane plant (in Guyana) i.e. top, leaves and trash, representing the largest energy fraction of the sugar cane (55 percent), which is presently burned off and left to rot in the fields, is a good source for producing biomass pellets.
This could also have a direct positive impact on Guyana’s environmental waste problems, as sawmilling dusk and rice products accounts for the largest amount of Guyana environmental waste products; 50 and 20 percent respectively.
Archaeologists believe man gained an understanding of how to manage fire long ago, fundamentally altering our ability to survive, expand our range and exploit our environment.
We have been burning plant material, or biomass, for a very long time.

Abundant cheap fossil fuels finally crowded biomass aside in much of the industrialised world in the 20th century. Biomass, though not often scarce, was more costly, less convenient, and given available combustion technology and less environmentally friendly in many respects.

Axe the Duty on Fuel Efficient Cars:
We are one of the few countries in the world to pay an exorbitant high price of government levied duty on new and old cars being imported into our country.
The price we pay for a 199X version of a Japanese car is equivalent to the cost of an alternative fuel vehicle currently available on the market. Imagine a new Honda Hybrid car gets over 60MPG.
A taxi driver can take a passenger from Georgetown to the airport and back on one gallon of gas. An alternative run car from Brazil consumes 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline.
Why then, would a government levy such heavy duty on old gas-guzzlers that pollute the air in our beautiful nation when we should be allowed to bring in these fuel-efficient cars without the high duty?

Conclusion:
A recent report out of Brazil noted that the world ethanol demand would test Brazil’s cane industry. I hope the government officials in Guyana who are so bent on ignoring this great opportunity right under their clogged noses will soon realise that we must move rapidly ahead in this market, given the multiple methods in which fuel can be produced.
Yes, we are an oil country, we have it in our waters, we have it on our lands and we have it in our cultivations. Our people deserve an opportunity to prosper, we deserve the opportunity to compete in the global market and we deserve to take the jobs that come with these new industries.
We want the royalties to come to each citizen, not the government.
The politics may be complex, but the technology is straightforward. There are many ways Guyana can become a fuel producing country if only our leaders will wise up to the ways of the world and to the benefits of joining the rest of the world on the international economic stage. Let us do this together. ([email protected])

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