“Darville: Oban HOA cause for concern – Govt. can’t terminate agreement based on impact report” – The Nassau Guardian”

Excerpt from this article; “Former Minister of Grand Bahama Dr. Michael Darville said yesterday that he has ‘great concern’ with certain provisions contained in a heads of agreement the government signed with Oban Energies to build a multibillion dollar refinery on Grand Bahama.

Darville, who served under the Christie administration, which agreed to the project in principle, said that fact that the agreement was signed without an environmental impact assessment (EIA) is a major issue.

According to the heads of agreement, which was tabled in the House of Assembly on Thursday night, ‘the government shall not have the right to terminate these heads of agreement based upon any EIA reports, but instead shall work with the developer to mitigate any concerns.’

I have great concerns about it,’ he said regarding that clause.”

Beside to point out the fact that many do not really care about the opinion of Dr. Darville on this matter and many other matters, I would also like to point out that Senator Darville’s comments seem to serve to do nothing more than to mislead the public at this point, as they are incomplete but then this can also be associated with the incomplete thought process associated with many in the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP); as a political organization and as a government.

For some reason or the other, Dr. Darville, wishes to mislead the public into thinking that the heads of agreement, as signed, will lock the government into an undesirable deal no matter the outcome of an impact assessment report but is this really so?

“According to the heads of agreement, once Oban has completed the EIA, the government, upon receipt of it has 60 days to offer feedback.

That clause also notes that Oban as the right to abandon the project.

‘If, as a result of the government’s review of an EIA, the government determines that the relevant portion of the development (as proposed to be constructed) cannot be implemented in a environmentally safe and sustainable manner, then the government shall propose that the developer take additional specific precautions or make specific modifications to the proposed development in order to address the government’s specific concerns,’ the agreement said.”.  I take this to mean that the developer cannot go ahead with the project until it has met the required standards as set by the government after they [the government] has scrutinized the pending EIA, if this is the case then why is Dr. Darville running down the streets with talks of the possibility of the sky falling?

Darville then goes on to say; “I would not have signed the heads of agreement without an environmental impact assessment to ensure that the project would be viable and safely protocols necessary to protect our environment in that sensitive area were in place.”   The problem that I have with this statement by the ‘good’ Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) senator and former minister of Grand Bahama is that if the project was approved in principle under the previous administration, then why is this Free National Movement (FNM) administration in the process of having to await one?  Surely the previous administration would have had one being put together, since this is the way that they did business and was not about putting the ‘cart before the horse’.

Surely there is something very suspicious about the comments of Senator Dr. Michael Darville and I find it amazing that with all of the other legitimate issues of concern that can and should be raised over this project by Senator Darville; as an opposition senator and resident of Grand Bahama, he would choose one that is moot before it is even spoken – is he this incompetent?

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