Stop the presses and protests; Prime Minister Patrick Manning in an address to the nation has stated that plans for the two proposed aluminium smelters will be discontinued.
Instead an industrial estate will be established offshore at Otahite where aluminium as well as other industrial activities will take place.
The decision was made coming out of the symposium about the proposed smelter plants, though he did reiterate that the aluminum smelter plants were safe once overseen by guidelines of the Environmental Management Agency (EMA).
So this post has absolutely nothing to do with Carnival but the issue has been weighing quite heavy on possibly every Trinidadians mind and now we can breathe a sigh of relief as we welcome the new year. Oh, and this address to the nation sounds as if elections might be called sooner than we think! Our Prime Minister has addressed every issue from the smelter plants to health care to traffic congestion to tertiary education to housing for all.
Merry Christmas everyone!!
Sunday, December 24, 2006
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2 comments:
Even though he discontinue the aluminum smelter plan he still going ahead with another thing that creating the same effect...Manning over determine with his plans, I believe big money pass under the table to develop this project cause he not giving up at all.
There is a real balancing act with utilizing the countries natural resource for growth and not destroying what IS the country's natural beauty and environment. I have very mixed feeling about these "darn" aluminum plants, and how much pollution will be exhausted and resources consumed in a effort to continue building the "wealth" of the Trinidad and Tobago across ALL income levels (a big money project does not automatically always mean some big money pass under the table). The better question to ask is is Manning and his Government spending the country's "wealth" on the correct priorities?
I for one am glad that Chatam plant was blocked and I felt that putting a plant in that area was too high a price to pay. That area is not an industrial area. For the most part it is a pseudo tropical rain forest area. I did see some ground clearing there and it looks like somebody took a tractor and zog the land (what a shame). My feeling is if an aluminum plant is feasible (with the environmental impact fully vetted) it should be placed on already underutilized industrial land, NOT new virgin lands.
Yet, I am still not enthused about this "investment" on non renewable and depleting resources. What happens when the price of oil/natural gas take the downward path again (is this weh weh economics or what?). Could there be a reasonable alternative? “The model of development to which I subscribe, one sometimes described as knowledge-based, depends not only on exploiting efficiently our natural and other resources even at the lowest level of factor production but also on using our brains in development and research to produce products and services which are differentiated from those usually on the market, since we will not otherwise be able to compete on economies of scale.” Mary King, “The R&D Economy,” Trinidad & Tobago Express, December 18, 2006. See full article here. Still there was some serious criticism of Manning’s Government for increasing the funding to UTT.
Sometimes a vision is only as good as the one in your head yes; reality is a different picture entirely (i.e policing by blimp, rather that boots (not only police, neighborhood watch most definitely) on the ground in the villages)).
Allyuh ready for MAS!!! LOL.
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