The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A leading advocacy group yesterday said it was opposed to oil exploration in Bahamian waters “unless and until” a US-style Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is created, warning that this nation is “lost at sea” on the issue.

Fred Smith QC, legal director for Save the Bays, told Tribune Business that the Bahamas needed to establish an “independent, well-funded and effective” environmental regulator before deciding whether to approve oil exploration.

Calling for Parliament to pass an Environmental Protection Act, Mr Smith described the existing agency, the Bahamas Environment, Science and Technology Commission (BEST), as “Mickey Mouse” and “a toothless tiger”.

In the absence of legislative reform and an effective regulator, the Callenders & Co partner likened the situation to “the blind leading the blind”.

And he questioned how the Government could approve oil exploration/drilling in Bahamian waters when it had yet to tackle the decades-old oil spills at Clifton Pier, and numerous other pollution incidents throughout the archipelago.

“Save the Bays is against oil exploration unless and until an Environmental Protection Act is passed, with an Environmental Protection Agency that is not a toothless tiger,” Mr Smith told Tribune Business.

“How could they be considering oil exploration when oil is leaking into every bay in the Bahamas, mostly from public corporations like the Bahamas Electricity Corporation.

“If we can’t control what we have now, God forbid the destruction to the environment if oil is ever to be found,” he added.

“The Bahamas is lost at sea. We want to go exploring for oil at sea, and it is simply a story of the blind leading the blind. The Bahamas, as an eco-friendly, desirable tourism location, will now come to an end.”

Mr Smith, on Save the Bays’ behalf, urged the Government to make no decision on whether to approve oil exploration in Bahamian waters until the necessary legislation, and EPA-style agency, were enacted.

He called for the latter to be “well-funded, effective” and independent from the Government.

“Hence the need for an Environmental Protection Act, and statutory creation of an Environmental Protection Agency,” Mr Smith told Tribune Business.

“Not this Mickey Mouse BEST Commission, which is simply for window dressing and pretence to make it appear as if we really do care about the environment in the Bahamas when the Prime Minister and others speak internationally. That is absolute hypocrisy.”

The BEST Commission is not a body created by statute, meaning that its decisions and findings are not binding because they have no backing in law.

As a result, it can only act as an ‘advisory’ body to other government agencies, most notably the Office of the Prime Minister, and its conclusions do not have to be acted upon.

Abnd a whole suite of ‘draft’ environmental Bills and regulations remains posted on the BEST website, some seven-eight years after being released but never acted upon.

Kenred Dorsett, minister of the environment and housing, last week unveiled plans to bring the new Petroleum Act and accompanying regulations to Parliament next month.

This package is designed to regulate oil exploration in Bahamian waters, and was hailed by Bahamas Petroleum Company (BPC), the first licensed explorer, as the first step in “unblocking a logjam” to multi-million dollar investments in the industry.

Mr Smith told Tribune Business that, on the surface, the Petroleum Act and regulations were “certainly a step in the right direction” when it came to dealing with pollution incidents in the Bahamas.

He added that Save the Bays would review the legislation, and “make a contribution to the debate” prior to its passage through Parliament.

Yet Mr Smith immediately warned: “The devil is always in the detail, and the endemic problem facing the Bahamas is the lack of enforcement of any laws on the books.

“The Bahamas is replete with environmental, Town Planning and development laws and regulations, but the executive branch of government, in conspiring with foreign developers and their transaction attorneys, override the laws passed by Parliament”.

The well-known QC explained: “The Planning and Subdivisions Act, which is fundamental to development in the Bahamas, has simply been ignored by the Office of the Prime Minister, the developers and the lawyers.

“It takes a non-governmental organisation like Save the Bays to protect Parliament and uphold the laws. We have, in essence, a constitutional crisis in Bahamas, even though people don’t want to realise it, between the executive and legislative branches.

‘The only check is the judicial branch, because the executive branch has run wild with arbitrary dictate. That is the problem facing legitimate developers in the Bahamas, as no one knows where they stand.”

Mr Smith said multinational proponents of liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals and pipelines in the Bahamas, the likes of AES and Tractebel, were “stymied simply for lack of due process”.

All were kept waiting in infinity for “the seal of approval” from the Office of the Prime Minister, which never came. They ended up walking away in frustration.

BPC’s chief executive, Simon Potter, previously emphasised that there was no comparison, or parallels to be drawn, between any ‘risk’ associated with its oil exploration plans and the recent oil spills in the Clifton area.

The BPC chief emphasised that the company’s exploratory wells were miles from any island, and would be situated on the Bahamas/Cuba border some 25 miles from the latter’s coast.

And he promised that the technology employed by BPC would be “bang up to date, compliant with international best practices and standards”, in contrast to the “ageing facilities” at Clifton Pier.

Mr Potter revealed that BPC would have the ability to “respond instantly” to any incidents at its rigs and around it, due to the constant presence of support vessels and equipment by it.

He added that BPC’s membership of the Oil Response Group gave it access to “millions of dollars of equipment” within 24 hours’ notice.