Bahamas Fuel Bills Set To Soar
By NEIL HARTNELL
Tribune Business Editor
Bahamians must brace for “a very expensive summer”, the Chamber of Commerce’s chief warned yesterday, as global oil prices surged to $80 per barrel.
Edison Sumner told Tribune Business that greater renewable energy penetration and usage “can’t come soon enough”, with no Bahamian or business able to escape the impact of energy costs that are forecast to soon exceed $100 per barrel.
Virtually all companies and households will feel the impact in their Bahamas Power & Light (BPL) bills and at the gasoline pump, resulting in reduced profits and disposable incomes, respectively, and higher costs of living.
Mr Sumner said there was little most Bahamians can do to mitigate the immediate impact, other than focus on energy conservation, as he renewed private sector calls for a regulatory framework that will better spur more rapid takeup of renewable energy technologies.
The Chamber is itself moving to improve access to renewable energy financing, with Mr Sumner disclosing it will shortly unveil an initiative to help persons fund the installation of rooftop solar panels.
In the meantime, he urged energy consumers to “use only what you have to’, reiterating that it could be “a long, hot summer” with the Bahamas totally at the mercy of oil producing countries and global political developments.
“I think we ought to be extremely concerned about it, especially given that all our energy sources currently are fueled by oil,” Mr Sumner told Tribune Business, after Brent Crude the major global price index hit $80 per barrel yesterday.
OWTU Predicts More Job Loss
Oilfields Workers Trade Union (OWTU) president general Ancel Roget is predicting that midyear review will not stimulate the economy but lead to increased unemployment.
Finance Minister Colm Imbert has stated that the economy is “turning the corner,” as several large local companies have reported better earnings in the first quarter (JanuaryMarch) of 2018.
However, Roget scoffed at Imbert’s statements saying he had presented three “stagnation“ budgets since the PNM was returned to power following the 2015 general election. “They have failed to manage the economy. How much budgets they have produced? Three – 2015, 2016 and 2017 – and we have seen absolutely no indication of them taking the economy in a positive direction,” he said.
“And to say the country has no money is a reason for that. We do not accept that! We reject that because they did not take the joint trade union plan to stimulate the economy. We foresee more of the same continuing to happen– increased taxes, more unemployment, and a lot of excuses for their malperformance,”
Roget said.
