Energy Security – Restructuring Part 2

By Carl Wilson

As we continue our series on the restructuring of the economy, we will look at the issue of alternative energies.  Oil imports make up about 30% of our total import bill but as the price of oil goes up it will become a significantly larger part of our imports.  Analysts are predicting oil prices of more than US$100 a barrel next year and this would have a devastating effect on our economy.  One also needs to remember that we are not paying the full price for all of our oil; a large part of the cost of oil taken from Venezuela is given as a loan to Jamaica.

This means that we are at risk of oil shortages if the loan facility were to be removed combined with a much higher price of oil.  A strategy needs to be developed and implemented to generate 50% of the nation’s energy demand from alternative energies by 2015.  Five years from now we may not be able to afford to buy oil or we may not be able to obtain it. This is because larger countries are trying to contract the purchase of oil from oil producing countries leaving smaller countries at considerable risk of no oil. Do you remember the problems that we had when we tried to buy natural gas from Trinidad? The increase in piracy has not helped the situation and the increase in insurgency in oil producing countries such as Nigeria, Iraq, etc further complicates the issue.The cost of using alternative energies is currently much higher than using oil but this will change with the increase in oil prices.  The government needs to implement an energy saving policy and a clear strategy for producing electricity from other sources such as solar, wind, waves, etc.  There is a need for an efficiently run public transportation and cargo shipment systems.  We need to reduce the number of cars on the road or alternatively switch to hybrids and electric cars.  The Government can start this process by implementing the recommendations of the energy audit.  All incandescent bulbs should be banned, neon signs for business places need to be switched off after certain hours and we could use energy saving bulbs in our street lights.

It may seem that we cannot afford to do these things at this time but how much more it will cost if we do nothing and end up with possibly no oil to run this country.