The Tribune

By LARRY SMITH

If you visit the Stronger Bahamas Facebook page, a recent post proclaims our intention to cut greenhouse emissions by 30 per cent within 15 years and insists that the government is “delivering” on its promises.

Let me explain. Last year, Prime Minister Perry Christie announced Stronger Bahamas as a “non-partisan public engagement and communications initiative” with a $4m taxpayer-funded budget.

The Opposition denounced it as a propaganda campaign. And it is certainly true that the communications thrust is to paint a rosy and (many would say) totally unrealistic picture of the current state of affairs in our country.

The Facebook post about carbon emissions is a spectacular case in point. The post referred to Environment Minister Kenred Dorsett’s 2015 budget address.

“When we took office (it) was obvious we could not go about business as usual,” he declared back then. “We have made major strides in climate change mitigation and renewable energy deployment.”

In support of this vague assertion, Dorsett pointed to a reduction of tariffs on energy-efficient appliances and a new regulatory regime for solar power generation - a regime that has never been implemented. He went on to insist that the government is “advancing renewable energy options to improve energy security, create jobs and provide for public-private participation in the power sector”.

Touting the national energy policy (developed over three administrations and completely out of touch with reality), he said renewables would have a 30 per cent share of our energy mix by 2033 - so far into the future as to be meaningless. Dorsett grandly envisioned solar power plants on many out islands - including at the Bahamas Agriculture and Marine Science Institute (BAMSI) on Andros.

In his latest budget address, Dorsett focused on the prospects of obtaining international funding for unspecified “climate change mitigation” projects. And he boasted about his election as chairman of the International Renewable Energy Agency.

But despite this portentous appointment, there was no talk of actual renewable energy projects in The Bahamas. It was all about accessing money from whatever source possible for studies - typically a means of delaying real change while looking busy.

In summary, as Dorsett said fantastically, “It should be clear to everyone that we are on our way to a renewable energy future.” And this is the talking point that the Stronger Bahamas campaign was trying to articulate on its Facebook post.

As we said above, it is a totally unrealistic picture - for the following reasons:

• There is no transparent policy or regulatory regime governing renewable energy production in the country. I can attest to this personally, having just gone through a tortuous process to install solar panels on a newly constructed building.

• There is no public education or engagement on energy conservation or climate change issues. Referring to some arbitrary emissions target in the far-off future does not constitute engagement and requires no effort.

• The government made special efforts to pass new laws to facilitate oil exploration and production in Bahamian waters - which is completely counter to our interests as expressed by government spokesmen in climate change conferences around the world.

• Overseas, the Prime Minister says climate change (caused by the burning of fossil fuels) “threatens the very existence of The Bahamas”, yet we do not have a single renewable energy development to our credit - although solar power plants now produce the lowest-cost energy around the world.

• Years of Requests for Proposals by the government and the electricity utility for a waste-to-energy plant at the Harold Road landfill have gone nowhere, despite frequent pronouncements that this was the best option to diversify the country’s energy mix and resolve long-standing public health issues at the dump.

So clearly, business as usual is precisely what this government is about. Our leaders only talk about change, they never get around to actually making it.

And those who think that renewable energy - wind and solar in particular - are not at a stage of development that would allow us to effectively implement projects here should think again.

Bloomberg New Energy News has reported that the government of Chile recently accepted a bid from a Spanish developer to sell power from a 120-megawatt solar plant for less than three cents per kilowatt-hour.

“That’s the cheapest to date for any kind of renewable energy,” Bloomberg said, “and was almost half the price of coal power sold in the same (auction) event. Prices for electricity generation have changed drastically in the last years.”

We suggest that the Stronger Bahamas writers and designers should diversify their reading beyond the convoluted and contradictory speeches of government ministers.

U-boats in The Bahamas and Turks & Caicos

Captain Eric Wiberg is the son of Anders Wiberg, a long-time hotelier out west who was the Swedish consul here for many years. A marine and naval historian, Eric Wiberg has operated oil tankers and sailed across the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans many times. He is now a shipping consultant in New York.

Some may recall his recent series of articles for The Tribune on Bahamian mailboats, which he is currently massaging into a book. But his latest publication focuses on the depredations of German and Italian submarines on Allied shipping around the Bahamian archipelago during the Second World War.

From early 1942 to late 1944 some 54 Axis submarines sank 130 merchant ships around the Bahamas, killing hundreds of crewmen - with the loss of only four subs.

Among the stories Wiberg tells is the sinking of the O A Knudsen, a Norwegian tanker under British Admiralty orders. She was torpedoed by the U-128 off Hole-in-the-Wall, Abaco in March, 1942.

Survivors made it to shore via lifeboats, where one of them - Olaus Johanson - died and was buried at Cross Harbour. Thirty-eight others were taken to Nassau and put up at the Rozelda Hotel (later the Carlton House and now a parking lot) on East Street.

There are several similar stories, which all feature an astonishing depth of detail, about the Allied ships and crew and the Axis submariners, as well as how the survivors were processed on shore in The Bahamas. Wiberg tells us that over 690,000 tons of Allied shipping were attacked by U-boats in the Bahamas area.

“Of the five ships sunk squarely in the Bahamas - O A Knudsen, Athelqueen and Daytonian off Abaco, Nicarao off Eleuthera and Cygnet off San Salvador - three were sunk by Italian subs. It is not common knowledge that there was a concerted Axis attack on the Bahamas region and the commercial chokepoints which the colony straddled.”

Indeed, even my nonagenarian father - who served on a Royal Air Force air-sea rescue boat here during the war - was largely unaware of this submarine threat. In fact, the four U-boats lost in 1942 and 1943 were all sunk by American ships or aircraft

According to US historian and author J Revell Carr, in his foreword to the book, “Wiberg has made a significant contribution to the bibliography of World War II history. His meticulous research allows us to relate to our heroes ... We also see the generosity of the people of the Bahamas.”

‘U-Boats in the Bahamas and Turks & Caicos’ by Eric Wiberg is published by Brick Tower Press (377 pages, hard cover).

What do you think? Send comments to lsmith@tribunemedia.net or visit www.bahamapundit.com