The Tribune

By AVA TURNQUEST

Tribune Staff Reporter

aturnquest@tribunemedia.net

SAVE The Bays will request copies of all permits granted for oil exploration from the government with the view to considering whether they should be judicially reviewed, according to director Fred Smith.

Mr Smith, a lawyer and environmental activist, said oil exploration licences granted in the absence of regulatory oversight or capacity represent “pure unadulterated hypocrisy”.

“As a director of Save the Bays, I am firmly opposed and would discourage licences for oil exploration until an independent environmental protection agency is created under an environmental protection act by Parliament,” he said. 

“One that is properly funded and is independent from Cabinet, in particular the Office of the Prime Minister. The incestuous relationship that exists with the BEST (Bahamas Environment, Science and Technology) commission and the Office of the Prime Minister, and the infection of BEST in the business of all other statutory regulators, is a recipe for environmental disaster in the Bahamas.”

Mr Smith added: “One need only look at the photographs of what is happening in Bimini to see that when the executive gets it in its head to approve a project, licence or development, no amount of pretended scrutiny or oversight by the BEST commission or any other regulatory agencies will have any effect.” 

Mr Smith was referring to ongoing dredging in Bimini as part of Resorts World Bimini’s construction of a pier, cruise ship terminal and man-made island.

His comments follow remarks made by Bahamas Petroleum Company’s (BPC) CEO Simon Potter at an environmental law and policy conference on oil exploration and related environmental damage, at the College of the Bahamas on Friday.

In an interview with The Tribune, Mr Smith criticised the independence of the BEST commission, which he said was not supported by parliamentary act and functioned as the Prime Minister’s “lap dog”.

“(BEST Commission) is merely thrown out there to pretend as if we have an environmental agency,” Mr Smith said, “when in fact we don’t. I cry shame on the Free National Movement and the Progressive Liberal Party that after decades of harping on about an environmental protection agency, neither have had the guts or decency to pass an Environment Protection Act and create such a body. The politicians on both sides of the fence have been hypocrites to the Bahamian people.”

He said: “We must cut the ministerial umbilical cord between the regulators and the Prime Minister. The environment of the Bahamas is too valuable to be sacrificed on the altar of political stupidity.”

Test wells are conditional on the three-year extension granted to BPC’s five oil exploration licences. The licences were extended until 2016, and its terms oblige BPC to start drilling its first well by April 2015.

Minister of Environment Kenred Dorsett has maintained that BPC will not be permitted to drill its test wells until the legislation is in place. On Friday, Mr Dorsett said he hoped the five draft proposed bills and regulations would be presented to Cabinet “soon”. 

The bills include an amended Petroleum Act, amended petroleum regulations, a sovereign wealth fund, a petroleum exploration and environmental protection and pollution control regulations and petroleum exploration health and safety regulations.

Draft legislation also provides for the statutory establishment of a Department of Environmental Planning and Protection, which Mr Dorsett said will act as an equivalent to the US Environmental Protection Agency.

Yesterday, Mr Smith said: “It is pure unadulterated hypocrisy on the part of the Minister of Environment or any other politicians to parrot respect for our laws and litigation, and oversight and monitoring of these projects, when they really don’t intend or in fact have the capacity or the resources to monitor independently. Before the first drop of oil is pumped out of our Bahamian banks we need to have an environmental act and an independent environmental protection agency.”

Mr Smith, a QC, said the government’s statements on protecting or mitigating damage to the environment was “political popularity speak”.

He said: “I will be writing to the government to ask for copies of these alleged permits and consider whether or not they should be judicially reviewed because in the absence of proper regulatory oversight, that is properly funded and technically resourced, the Bahamas can face monumental environment oil disasters which will destroy our marine environment, for ecotourism, sustaining of our fisheries resources and exports and will completely turn away tourists.”