The future of the CNMI according to…

Over the last 37 years I have watched the CNMI develop from that small, laid-back piece of the Trust Territory into a lumbering giant amongst Pacific islands during the ’90s and for a while after 2000. History now tells us that our aspirations were misguided, fueled by the fervor of a few for quick wealth, greed and power. It has served those few well, but has it served you?

Since 1995, the CNMI was led into a snowstorm of corruption, conspiracy, mal-intent and all fostered by a sense of isolation, world events sometimes seen as directed solely against the CNMI, and leadership that consistently fell far short of reading what was written so clearly on the walls of disaster, having donned the blinders to reality during the “good ol’ times.” Some erudite individuals tried sounding warnings not dissimilar to the midnight ride of Paul Revere, but they were discounted, along with countless offerings and well-intended suggestions—mostly having come from “outsiders,” myself included.

So much for the disdain of outside personalities. After all, hadn’t the CNMI suffered hundreds of years under “foreigners?” But, now this once powerful and energetic island base is sliding rapidly down the slippery slope of collapse and led by so-called leaders who had managed to make a lifetime job out of politics and, blinded by their own sense of aggrandizement, no longer were able to heed or even hear the cries of their beleaguered people. People and businesses now taxed to death, some forced to leave their homeland to survive, have become so disconnected from current leadership that words of disparagement are flung at one another relentlessly—some on the pages of this periodical.

It’s time to stop! This ship of a nation needs a new rudder, a new captain, a new crew. Some current elected officials are just now waking up to the new reality—a very bleak one at that—and doing…nothing! Well, almost nothing if you consider casino, open zoning, midnight massages, and marijuana as magic bullets. They are now seeing the exodus—and Moses is nowhere in sight. Unless changes are made, here are what I feel are some of the things the CNMI can look forward to over the next 10 years:

Continued decreasing budgets as the Legislature plods relentlessly toward more and more “revenue sources” (now known as “taxes”) to perpetuate the bloated system while blindly believing in the tooth fairy (casino) and plunging headlong after more greedy “free” money, somehow having convinced themselves that the fairy godmother will descend and bestow their every desire; continued departure of business and people as earning a living wage no longer exists; a failed infrastructure as power generation flounders with its ever attendant water, sewage, etc.

We can point fingers at the rest of the world, as we have for the last few years, or at each other. We can “blame” air carriers, SARS, federalization, oil, Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny—but what has been or will be accomplished with this?

Or we can decide to stand, brush off and take the steps needed—and one of those steps is to clear ourselves of certain ingrained myths and the rationale behind “familial” politics. Since the end of the Trust Territory days, I have not been witness to a single stranger coming into this land with the intent to harm it or any of its people. In fact, there have been countless “outsiders” who came here, contributed, and fell in love with the place and its people. Many have left, many will stay and all will help if given the chance. I’m not speaking of the small, criminal element that has recently manifested and taken advantage of our untenable situation—but can be eliminated.

Let’s speak briefly about the one thing that, in my view, will be the key to regenerating the CNMI: power, and I don’t mean government. First, we have already been warned by officers at CUC that their engines won’t last but about five to seven years more—a dire warning indeed, yet has any government official acknowledged it? Have there been any plans afoot to cope with such a collapse? Even if CUC’s 30- to 40-year-old engines could be nursed along for another 10 years, here’s what you face: Ever increasing maintenance costs, replacement parts that may or may not be available, frequent outages and disruptions, inability to service all users and rolling blackouts as production wanes or varies, ever more pernicious EPA oversight and ever increasing costs to the consumer, especially if the price of diesel continues to rise, as is likely. A co-operative or receivership is not the answer.

And what will CUC cost you? Currently operating on a $120 million or so annual budget, bolstered with higher than needed consumer billings because the government itself must be subsidized for failure to pay its own bill, and not including any cost increases, CUC will gobble up over $1.2 billion over the 10 years and you will pay ever increasing household bills, now pegged at around 40 cents per KwH and indelibly headed for 45 or even 50 cents per KwH as the consumer base depletes.

What is the government proposing? Well, nothing really. They opine of great solar arrays or huge wind farms and tapping unknown volcanic sources for geothermal power or the ocean’s tides (while enacting additional taxes on “green” appliances). These so-called “alternative” power sources, consistently limited by local pundits as “solar, wind, bio-mass (ugh!) and geothermal,” have been touted as the “answer,” mostly by high-pitched sales people of unknown repute who would have you believe “they” and “they” alone have the magic bullet—and a “clean, green” one at that! Well, dream on (as they say); it ain’t gonna happen, at least not here.

The costs of such impositions are outrageous, the true environmental impact is being hidden from you, government subsidies are the norm in current installations—and not a single one of them has yet to match or fall below the cost of diesel (all factors considered). They are touted as “green” but are they? Several times in letters to the editor, I have explained the “green” footprint of these industries—and they are not what you have been led to believe. Truly, the wind and the sun are not free power for one and all! (Caveat: individual, private, supplemental units are a viable use of wind and solar, so why is our government not supporting such?)

A well-respected former educator, Roger Mr. Ludwick, has touched upon a new technology—a safe, cheap source of power, albeit a controversial one simply because for two generations we have been guided (more often, mis-guided) by the complexities of the nuclear phenomenon. Currently invested nuclear plants have shown us their power—to destroy and, as is the wont of most, to believe the worst is ingrained. Now, we have a newer version and, to some, it is difficult to envision that an industry we already loathe can somehow become our benefactor, having cured the problems so often displayed in the past. I’ve already spoken in previous letters about the safety of new Small, Passive, Modular Reactors (SPMRs) that are just on the horizon and could be in service (here) in two to four years. Doubters linger but the research is clear and will be proven soon.

Compare the cost: A fully functional SPMR generating 27 MW of power could be had for the mere sum of about $30 million. It would sit on a half-acre of land and appear as nothing more than a two-story, four-bedroom home. It would use no external resources such as water or chemicals. There would be no emissions of any kind, making its “green” footprint smaller than any other source of power. The 10-year cost of installing and operating two of these plants would be about $90 million (compare this to CUC at $1.2 billion). Refueling would occur at 10-year intervals and no waste (the expended fuel source) would ever be kept on site. Final cost to the consumer would be about 8 to 10 cents per KwH for the first five years, as construction cost is amortized by its private owner/operator, and 5 to 7 cents per KwH after that (including ½ cent per KwH for cost of the next fuel module).

That final residential or business bill alone would draw investors like flies to honey—and our displaced people could come home. There are additional benefits such as production of hydrogen gas and desalinization of ocean water. With hydrogen as a ready and cheap gas, we could convert nearly all modes of transportation on island to this power source, whose only emission would be water—not the deadly, toxic exhaust of gasoline. Both Honda and Mercedes are currently manufacturing such vehicles.

By the way, gasoline is now, what, about $4.75 a gallon? The hydrogen produced by added modules on the SPMR plant would cost, if compared as an equivalent to gasoline, about 40 cents per gallon—and the mileage is better too!

I think it’s time to work together, to cast off the myth that outsiders are here to somehow destroy the indigenous and its vibrant culture, to have a little trust in one another and to actually become a viable part of the American family—instead of begging handouts, then yelling hands off.