Mario Moorehead’s Energy Proposal
In late 2007, Mario Moorehead voiced a plan to fund a new power plant in an effort to address the crisis we are experiencing with our WAPA rates. Feel free to voice your opinion on the plan which we have summarized below:
- Governor deJongh would negotiate with Hovensa for the delivery of additional fuel products to WAPA at a discounted rate similar to that of the current fuel deliveries.
- WAPA would sell this fuel to the gas stations on St. Thomas at a rate that balances the needs for lower fuel costs to the motoring public and a reasonable ‘profit’ for WAPA.
- WAPA would construct additional fuel storage tanks to temporarily store this additional fuel until purchased and received by the gas stations.
- WAPA would use the proceeds from the resale of fuel to fund a new power plant on St. Croix’s south shore and a submarine power cable between the existing St. Thomas power grid and the new power plant on St. Croix. The new plant will be fueled by pet coke and/or a mix of fuel sources such as Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC), wind, etc. The existing submarine cables linking St. Thomas to St. John and Water Island would remain in place.
What’s your opinion on the plan? Do you have ideas on how to improve on it? Do you have concerns about the plan?
I like the idea of wind farms powering neighborhoods, off shore wind generators at Hams Bluff, and net metering from homeowners’ solar panels on the roofs.
I like the concept, but whoever has managed to sustain the high gas prices in the STT/STJ district won’t just roll over. They will put up a fight.
The higher the gas prices, the better for speeding up new technologies to replace fossil fuels. Cheap gas for cars causes more traffic, air pollution and wasted productivity. When gas is expensive, people buy smaller cars and its easier to get around. They think about where they are going and will probably put their kids on the yellow buses instead of individually dropping their little darlings at the front door of each school. This is one of our main sources of excess traffic. Just get wapa to invest in sun and wind and use the underwater cables as each island will require less energy.
You got to be kidding, WAPA is going to manage fuel distribution to STT? Better yet you think that not only could they manage it, they could do it profitable.
Mario’s brother, Alex “Hovensa” Moorehead, understands that the more the big refinery is asked to give the more the people dem want.
WAPA’s problem is more financial than it is the higher fuel costs. If every Virgin Islander found a way to reduce their consumption by 50%, WAPA would respond by raising the LEAC. While in theory an idea that would save the “people” money sounds good, we would just be forced to use that extra money elsewhere (LEAC). The real answer is to address the fact that we could power our own homes with generators for only about $100 – $200 more than by connecting to this inept Public Utility! WAPA expenses are entirely too high for a Public Utility of it’s size. We need to face the hard truth that maybe we can’t AFFORD to pay several people $80K and more to be part of WAPA’s management team!
I like the emerging technologies like this, seem a perfect fit for the Virgin Islands. http://www.hyperionpowergeneration.com/