Half price electricity by half year

Feb 02, 2025 Features / Columnists, The GHK Lall Column

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Hard Truths

By GHK Lall

Kaieteur News- I will take half price electricity.  Midyear is a good time for me.  I will count on it, make it a test case.  There are Americans, Germans, and Guyanese who all have their respective responsibilities in the Wales Gas-to-Energy (GTE) coming on stream and delivering.  Let it be.  Let Guyanese see.

Guyanese will get to determine for themselves if this GTE is fabricated out of air and smoke, or the particular gases that Vice President Jagdeo has as his own specially reserved field.  Or, if this US$2 billion electricity project has real substance as its foundation and is built to deliver.  And deliver.  At half the price that Guyanese now pay per kilowatt hour of electricity.  Deliver in a continuing supply that is as reliable as the rocks that bind the Georgetown Seawall.

From the first day my position was that I welcome any electricity apparatus that delivers cheap electricity and what represents a marked improvement on the calamity that Guyanese must deal with now, for decades.  That position has not changed.  Vice President Jagdeo has argued and abused, and little else.  August, it is of now, late in January, so there is willingness to be patient, and observe what happens then.  My hope is that this GTE project succeeds, as marketed.  History has taught us that political marketing and commercial marketing are not the same.  The latter involves toying with the nuances of the English Language, but still delivering a product that performs; while the former has come to mean that anything goes, including a cure for cancer, and making clouds deposit rain in drought-stricken areas.  It would be impressive if the vice president could finally produce a winner, one success against his name, if only to get off that drag of 100% failures, zero victories.  No leader, no captain, could be that poor that long.  What is it now, 23 years then 5 more?

I think that August 31, 2025, could prove to be the beginning of a boom or bust interval for the Oil and Gas maestro of Guyana, Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo.  Once the project (all three segments of it) links up and shows up on time (what’s a few more days to wait for a safe and sound operation?) and performs as said, then it could be the best day of Mr. Jagdeo’s life.  Gone would be his reputation as flimflam leader and snake oil salesman.  If it doesn’t, then he would have gone from crisis to catastrophe.  Since credibility is already at such a low ebb for him, there is nothing much to tap into from that department.  The first hurdle is for the Wales GTE to generate electricity.  The second is to deliver it.  The third is for there to a steady, near uninterrupted supply.  The fourth is for it to come with 50% off as touted ad tagged.  The fifth is both the dependable supply and the cut price must not be for introductory purposes only, i.e., teasers for the first year or so, but for the long haul.  The last is for the Guyanese people to watch this project and Jagdeo, as they would an alert and agitated cobra, so as to detect any tricks with that price.  Meaning, they don’t end up paying full price through some sleight of hand arrangement that bites them on the behind when they aren’t looking.

Separately, apologies to Jagdeo’s assorted admirers and loyalists for my lack of confidence on things with the vice president’s fingerprints on them.  It just can’t be helped.  All I am doing is being observant of that old standard: once bitten, twice shy.  Multiply the bites by 20 and the negative picture of his failures begins to take shape.  I know this local starring character so well that he is almost like family to me.  He needs a seamlessly up and running Wales GTE to save some face and hold his head high.  I am still to recall the last time any Guyanese has felt comfortable giving him the benefit of the doubt, so many have been his costly stumbles for Guyana’s taxpayers of Guyana.  He is due a little operating space, and the Wales GTE could be his moment of truth.

I strongly believe that the Yanks and Germans are the best supporting cast that he could have found anywhere.  So, how could anything wrong, with those two sets of folks leading the way at the Wales complex?  Come August, it should be all systems go.  The Wales GTE goes forward, or it goes down with the sun and hauls Jagdeo down with it.  All the participants: America’s LindsayCa ch4 Guyana, Germany’s Siemens, and every one of their subcontractors still get to draw down.  Meanwhile, Guyanese get to draw a deep breath and draw straws to ascertain who is responsible for paying the least of that US$2 billion bill.  Or what’s still owed, when Exxon takes out its billion from Guyana’s oil revenue.  I want to see this working in Guyana.  I hope that Guyanese do not take another working over from Mr. Bharrat Jagdeo.

(Half price electricity by half year)

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of this newspaper.

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• cheap electricity, Georgetown Seawall, half price electricity, hard truths, Wales Gas-to-Energy

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