Long waltz with bankruptcy

Ever get the disorienting anxiety that something bad is going to happen, though you can’t put your finger on it? It’s a very troubling feeling, right? About your only option is to wait out the devastating tide of fear to hit full measure!

For most retirees and working folks, you can expect power bills to increase before year’s end, including several spikes next year. This and health premiums have found some comfortable place in family pocketbooks eating everything away like some deadly virus.

Definitely, they have and would continue to heavily reduce family buying power of basic needs while wages and salaries have remained the same (stagnant) for more than 10 years.

Lack of policy on energy

There’s the obvious lack of a major policy on energy (renewable energy) designed to lessen the cost of power bills in the short- and long-term. The lack of a common goal or synergistic approach to this issue makes it no better than driftwood out in the open waters.

Sad that a fully equipped energy firm is ready to offer realistic solution to ease the spiraling cost of this expense that consistently floors all consumers but policymakers on both side of the street have taken long snoozes on the switchboard as to ignore the very means to help power consumers on Saipan, Tinian and Rota with affordable power rates.

Moreover, CUC could hardly pay the $64 million in court stipulated fines. So where would the agency secure funds to fix the manually operated system that doesn’t allow for inclusion of renewable energy into the grid? Would a useless feasibility study ease this hardship against consumers anytime soon?

Furthermore, it has had difficulty collecting from a bankrupt government some $21 million in utility bills owed. Recalled DPL giving CUC, through MPLT, some $3.5 million to fix the system lest Saipan was headed into very stormy blackouts. It goes to show that CUC isn’t fiscally sound.

Aren’t these islands earthquake prone? This natural phenomenon threatens embracing geo-thermal energy, doesn’t it? Isn’t it true that cloud cover constantly moves over the islands making the steady flow of sunlight problematic for solar power? In either case, it presents a dilemma when dealing with securing affordable power generation system. Now we must place total reliance on the new CPUC board members for some real time leadership!

A realistic solution by GGS

Green Global Solutions is prepared to offer the Commonwealth Utilities Corp. a “service contract” to take over the power system. It would bring in an initial investment of some $300 million to begin building renewable energy systems that would eventually reduce the cost of power to far cheaper levels than what consumers pay today.

The people of the CNMI won’t participate in the repayment of its investment of some $300 million. Consumers would only continue buying power from CUC at a reduced rate. Hopefully, when the system connects renewable energy to the grid and is further refined, consumers can look forward with confidence that they have a power system that is reliable, stable, and affordable.

GGS is part of a multinational business firm associated with real manufacturers and technical experts on renewable energy such as wind turbine. It plans to approach the issue with the combined use of wind energy, photovoltaic, battery system, and fossil fuel to ensure reliability and stability of the system.

Its project would eventually allow CUC some appreciable savings to use on other needs like water improvement. GGS would ensure power generation for current and future needs of the islands. Consumers on all inhabited islands would be paying far less than their current power bills.

Could politicians bypass their myopic views to embrace what’s good for the people they represent in our governmental institutions? Or do we need to storm Capital Hill to instill our dire need for assistance on an issue that has robbed families of direly needed nickels and dimes for their needs?

Health premiums will increase

Cost of health insurance policy would definitely increase. This would be triggered by the contraction of Fund membership—when DB and DC members finally exit—their share of the cost transferred to retirees to pay through the nose.

This abysmally egregious expense destined to bleed family pocketbooks would send households clamoring for answers from the “fools on the hill” (Capital Hill). They have done nothing of significance to pull us out of the cesspool of negligence and misery. And they’re singing, “O’ when the saints” dangling their “Cast-It-Now” (casino) law. No mas!

Miscreants as evil geniuses

Are policymakers incapable of conceptualizing an issue in order to understand it thoroughly with common decency? Why would anyone don the role of the “blind, mute and deaf” on an issue that requires due diligence in order to ensure protection of the future of our children?

It is said that the future is now. Is this your best offer—the eventual and permanent corruption of the NMI, derailed completely from thoughtful planning of its future?

How I wish there’s a gear in development where we could instantly reverse position when our quick fixes fail. But such isn’t the process in the normal course of events. When our designs are prepped for failure we would fail, true? Why work on failure as though it’s the latest tool in business management? Dios mihu, dalai `ste!

John DelRosario Jr. is a former publisher of the Saipan Tribune and a former secretary of the Department of Public Lands.