Opposition Member of Parliament for St. George South, Dwight Sutherland, is calling for consistency in how various projects are handled in the island.
Addressing the Lower House yesterday during the debate on the Offshore Petroleum Bill, he said that if an environmental impact assessment (EIA) was done on one construction project, it should be done on all.
“My difficulty comes when we seek to implement certain projects that are critical to Barbados’ sustainable development, but yet we want to circumvent the EIA studies in certain critical projects. Let me speak to energy – the Cahill project. These are some of the issues that I have with the Government of today, because you cannot come on one hand and speak to EIA being important in one sector and then in another section of Government … seek to circumvent the EIA study,” he said.
He added it was a similar situation with regards to the Hyatt project.
Saying he had no problems with the amendments to the legislation, he did have a problem with the timing of it.
“If these projects are so critical to sustainable development in this country, why then we don’t be consistent in our thinking and in our views and our policies and our regulations as it relates to our sustainable development goals? That is what you ought to do,” he stressed.
Later in his presentation, Sutherland highlighted also said that it was time for Government to rethink the excise tax on gasoline and diesel, saying the prices of these were too high in this country and having an impact on businesses and on the pockets of Barbadians who were already struggling.
Sutherland said the debate must turn to energy in how to change the island into a green economy, focusing instead on reducing the island’s dependence on imported fuels rather than just on increasing these prices at the pump. (JMB)