Dear Editor,
I read an article forwarded to me by a colleague in St. Kitts & Nevis
https://www.thedailyherald.sx/islands/82033-enviropower-lay-out-possible-solution-to-smoking-dump. I find myself both amazed and appalled at the proposal that culminates in an equivalent per kwh rate of 25 US cents. This is, in my professional opinion, a rabid case of unbridled capitalism that operates on the principle of “getting some to pay as much as you can possibly get from them, while agreeing to provide the bare minimum in the form of goods and services that are possible at this point in time using cutting edge technologies”.
I then see a demand for tax free, tariff free on top of the gouging St. Maarten would be in for under such a deal per kwh. The interesting part about a viable business deal is that it can be accomplished all the while it pays taxes and such other obligations of a responsible corporate citizen of St. Maarten. The interesting part about colonialism is that it does not stop when the colonizers go home; it only becomes more nuanced.
Let me suggest to you that the answer rests in a company being invested in St. Maarten and in that investment, they pay what everyone else pays. The restaurant you eat at doesn’t lobby for tax-free status as a condition of selling you your meal, and neither does the grocery store or the other businesses on the island getting a break just for doing what businesses do.
Let me suggest something to the people and to the political players in St. Maarten, the following:
* Your landfill is in fact a goldmine waiting to be tapped. That waste can indeed be converted to power in a waste-to-energy plant and the power sold retail at $0.10 to $0.12 USD, not $0.25 USD
* Just as importantly some of that waste can be turned into marketable organic fertilizers….it is called commoditizing trash
* That same waste can be shredded, dried (using heat generated at the power plant) so that the waste can be hermetically sealed and stored for years if need be until it is processed for power generation or fertilizer…again, commoditizing trash
* Your sewage can all be processed and used for the making of high-grade organic fertilizer the same as your landfill waste…. once again “commoditization”
* The jobs created from this multi-faceted endeavour can positively impact both unemployment and under-employment within the country
* All this can be accomplished while at the same time paying taxes as any good citizen should
* Additional benefits include the technology we use being able to dispose of medical waste and hazardous waste without incineration and thus 99.9% pollution free
* Those cruise ships that stop in St. Martin can off-load their sewage and their garbage and they can become an asset to the island, and I am sure some smart politician will see the draw that can create for the cruise lines
* The other possibility to a truly sustainable island is being able to parley that organic fertilizer into a vertical grow agricultural system that can make St. Maarten self-sufficient instead of importing food……. And there you also have a positive impact on the balance of trade for St. Maarten.
I am just getting started, but the bottom-line point to be made is that if bank robbery is illegal…. then why would you allow legal thievery vis-à-vis your electric bill?
One of the joys as I reach the end of my years, is that I can do what it is I should do…. and not just what I can get away with. Perhaps there is a lesson in that.
Food for thought.
- Craig Eschrich
Chairman & Chief Executive Officer
IPV Energy Heavy Industries Corporation
Salt Lake City, Utah 84105 (United States)
