US Officials To Explore Energy Alternatives With Caribbean
May 5th, 2008 US Officials To Explore Energy Alternatives With Caribbean By Kendea Jones The US Embassy will hold a conference in July with US and Bahamian energy experts to determine how The Bahamas can make use of alternative and renewable energy sources, according to outgoing Deputy Chief of Mission Dr. Brent Hardt.
“Ambassador Ned Siegel since he got here has tried to arrange for a major event, which will be here in The Bahamas, to focus on alternative energy and how the Caribbean can access that, how it can get financing to take advantage of these new technologies that are out there,” said Dr. Hardt, who was a special guest on the JCN TV/Love 97 FM programme “Jones and Company” on Sunday.
“I know that it something that Prime Minister [Hubert] Ingraham has mentioned as one of his main priorities because The Bahamas is extremely energy dependent…Our goal with this event…is to bring expertise to The Bahamas to try to engage some of the other Caribbean countries as well and to discuss what is out there and how other countries can take advantage of it.”
The show’s host, Wendall Jones, pointed out that sometimes the price of oil decreases. He asked Dr. Hardt if he believes this is a trend that will continue.
Dr. Hardt said decreasing oil prices is not something that he foresees in the near future.
“My own supposition is that it is going to keep going up because as you see China and India are using more oil all the time,” he said.
“Somebody noted the small percentage of Chinese who now have automobiles and what it is likely to be in five to 10 years is a much higher percentage. So the demands for fossil fuels are going to be higher all the time and that’s why all of us need to focus on other types of energy that are out there.”
Dr. Hardt, who leaves for Barbados this month to become the Deputy Chief of Mission there, said he will work to ensure that Caribbean countries work together to solve some of their common issues.
He said building the region to “adapt” is pivotal.
“While the region has always been blessed with beautiful beaches, great locations and a lot of innovation, the region is now more than ever competing with parts of the world like Dubai and Latin America and Central America for tourism because people are looking for more exotic locations,” he said.
“So building the region up to adapt is very critical and this really has to be done in partnership with the government and the private sector.”
Dr. Hardt said he believes many countries in the Caribbean still depend greatly on agriculture, which is not good in the long run.
“So you see many of the countries start to move away from those traditional products but the question is ‘What comes next?’ and I think that The Bahamas is ahead of its Caribbean counterparts. That’s because you are already in that new economy where the main service is tourism and it is clearly the wave of the future; agriculture can be linked in, which people coming into the region would love to have.”
Dr. Hardt said although the US economy is facing many challenges, the Western Hemisphere should take it as an opportunity to be more innovative.
“Certainly we have other economic challenges and there is no denying that, but all that says is that we have to be more active, more present in the region, in the Caribbean and in Latin America because we are competing now with China and with South Asia, Europe and other countries for economic engagement and competition generally is a good thing,” he said.
“So I think we need to be smarter and the Caribbean countries as well need to step up and figure out how to be more efficient and effective so that they can compete as well.”