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‘Hold committee hearings on green energy for NMI’
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Posted on Sep 11 2008
A candidate for delegate has asked a U.S. congressional panel to hold hearings to determine which sustainable energy programs would best help the Commonwealth.
Gregorio C. Sablan, a former executive director of the Commonwealth Election Commission who is now running for congressional delegate, urged the U.S. House Subcommittee on Insular Affairs to take a cue from the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, which recently held a field hearing on the issue of renewable energy in Alaska.
The Senate hearing was held to gather information on the energy problems in Alaska’s remote villages and to explore alternative energy solutions to those problems.
According to Sablan, the energy issues in the Commonwealth are similar to those experienced in Alaska. Those issues include high fuel prices, poor infrastructure, low incomes, and unreliable power service.
“We need change—we need to find cheaper, environmentally friendly power sources and we need your help in finding the alternative power sources that will be best for our islands for the long term,” Sablan said in his letter to Rep. Donna M. Christensen, chairwoman of the House Subcommittee on Insular Affairs.
He noted the various alternative energy proposals that have floated in the Commonwealth for years—wind farms, solar power, geothermal energy, and nuclear power. He said these proposals have been discussed and ultimately discarded mainly because there is no solid information to help the CNMI weigh the pros and cons of each option.
“Most of the information the Commonwealth has received about alternative energy proposals has come from salespeople—and we cannot base our islands’ power needs, indeed our economy and our environment, on salespeople’s promises,” Sablan said.
The current power crisis, he added, has made it urgent for the Commonwealth to make the switch to alternative energy. And for the CNMI to commit itself to alternative energy sources, it needs data from objective studies.
