Latest update April 19th, 2024 12:59 AM
Jun 03, 2019 News
By Enid Joaquin
Senior Business Strategist for the Guyana Initiative Against Climate Change (GIACC) Everton Forris, has expressed dismay over Linden’s Mayor Waneka Arrindell, suggesting that the site, chosen by his company for the development of a 500 acre solar farm, at Kara Kara, Linden, is not “viable and appropriate.”
Forris declared,‘Relocating us, is like saying no to this project. The Mayor needs to know that the reason this location was picked out by GIACC and the former CEO of NICIL, Horace James, is because of the creek-that’s running water, along with the nearby mountains and hills.
“Mr. James was a highly qualified engineer with the Bauxite Company, and was very competent and knowledgeable, so we based our decisions, taking into consideration his very erudite advice. In fact, GIACC requires the running water and high nighttime winds which are produced by the temperature differential, between the lake and the land as the land cools down more rapidly than the water in the evening. The hills are also necessary for pumped hydroelectric storage.”
Forris also indicated, that the present Deputy Mayor Wainwright Bethune, who had also visited and assessed the location, in his capacity as an environmentalist, attached to Bosai, had also given the site the “thumbs up”, because of its unique terrain.
In a letter, which was addressed to the CEO of GIACC, Sharon Benjamin- Fauconier, and copied to Ministers Ronald Bulkan and Winston Jordan and Acting CEO of NICIL, Colvin Heath-London, among others, the Mayor indicated to the Company, that the site that they’ve earmarked for a solar farm at Kara Kara, Linden, is not “viable and appropriate”.
The letter stated, “Please be advised that as a result of a meeting held on 9th May 2019, the Mayor and Town Council of Linden, has made the decision, that the location of the plant, for the operations of GIACC, is not ‘viable and appropriate’, given the future infrastructural development plans of Linden, and the Mayor and Town Council (M&TC)”.
She further indicated, that the M&TC would engage GIACC ‘with regard to identifying an alternative location’ for its operations, ‘having regards to the public interest and the needs of the people of Linden’.
An alternative location would be identified, after ‘a comprehensive business proposal and plan’ is submitted to both the M&TC and NICIL, the Mayor said.
However, GIACC’ S CEO, Sharon Benjamin-Fauconier, insists that proposals were sent out, to all the relevant authorities, including the NICIL Board and Cabinet, and had been approved by the latter.
“We sent out a twenty-six page proposal to all these people, and we submitted a summarised eight page proposal to the Mayor and Town Council, so we find it very strange, that the Mayor is now saying, that we need to submit a proposal.”
Future Plans
The Mayor did not mention what the ‘future infrastructural developmental plans’ for the Kara Kara site are, but she did indicate, that among those who attended the meeting, was a representative from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
According to the Mayor, the representative had disclosed that GIACC had not submitted any application for environmental authorisation regarding the establishment of the project to the agency.
She added that the representative had advised that GIACC submit an application for same, accompanied by a project summary, to the EPA.
With regard to the issue of environmental authorisation, CEO Benjamin-Fauconier, in a correspondence to NICIL’S CEO Heath London, stated: “I wrote Dr. Vincent Adams of the EPA, requesting his presence, as I did of yours, to meet with the Linden Mayor and Town Council. Dr. Adams’ specific response was, “It is outside the scope of its mission for the EPA to get involved until such time that an application for an environmental permit is submitted to the Agency. Your project concept is obviously a good one for the country and (one) which the EPA and I would definitely support as it becomes necessary for the Agency’s involvement”.
This was corroborated in a recent invited comment by Dr. Adams, who said,” I have made it clear to GIACC, that the EPA cannot, and will not, get involved, until an application is made to the Agency for the appropriate authorisation.”
GIACC’s CEO is thus reiterating the call to NICIL, to have their lease stamped and notarised, so that her Company could acquire, the necessary building and EPA permits, in order to commence construction. “GIACC requires a regularised lease for ancillary efforts such as application for building permits etcetera, to succeed.
These permits cannot be acquired, unless the lease is notarised,” Benjamin Fauconier stressed.
SUPPORT
The Mayor, in an earlier telephone interview on the GIACC project, had indicated that her Council welcomes developmental initiatives in the Town, and that she was looking forward to meeting with Executives of the Company, at the earliest opportunity.
However, subsequent calls to secure a comment, regarding “the future developmental plans”, the Council has, for the Kara Kara site, proved futile.
HATCHED OVERNIGHT
GIACC’s Senior Business Strategist, Everton Forris, meanwhile, has indicated to this publication, that “the future developmental plans’, mentioned in the letter, seems to have been “hatched overnight.”
“I met with both the Mayor and her Deputy on 11th April, at eleven am at the M&TC office, and during the discussions on the project, I asked them if they had any immediate plans for the Kara Kara location, and they said no, and that their only concern, was getting to the dump site and the Blue Lake for the Wash Down. My response was that GIACC had no problem with that, and that they will be given full access. I have this conversation on tape (recording).”
Despite the setbacks, CEO Benjamin-Fauconier, says she remains committed to seeing the project to fruition, and has sent out letters to several Ministers, and has recently engaged President David Granger on the issue.
Alluding to comments made on social media about “greasing somebody’s hand’, in order to get things done expeditiously, Benjamin-Fauconier quipped, “we have US investors, and our company operations will be inextricably intertwined with the United States. We are therefore bound by the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which forbids us to pay bribes to anyone!”
GIACC said it is aiming to employ at least 500 Lindeners in its first six years of operation. The Company conservatively estimates that it will provide 20 permanent positions by the end of the first year of operations at the Kara Kara site, 100 permanent positions by the end of the third year, and 500 permanent positions by the end of the sixth year.
According to officials, the multi-million dollar enterprise, which would be powered exclusively by renewable energy, will encompass a five hundred acre solar farm, and is expected to produce a variety of products and services for both local and overseas markets.
But forging ahead with the project, is proving to be frustrating for the US based Linden investors.
They have complained about NICIL’s sloth in notarising their lease, which is creating an unnecessary hold up; and now, the Mayor’s suggestion that an alternative site be identified.
The Company’s Senior Business Strategist Everton Forris recently lamented, “Right now, we have over $20M in equipment waiting to be shipped, but we cannot do that unless we secure our site, and that cannot be done without having our lease being notarised.”
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Apr 19, 2024
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