The VP is not misled but a willing advocate

Feb 24, 2021 Letters

DEAR EDITOR,

I refer to the article titled, “Local oil boss misled by EPA on Exxon’s $14B [should be cubic feet] flaring cap -Vincent Adams” (KN February 22). My positions follow.
I recognize and laud Dr. Vincent Adams’ continuing and tireless efforts to educate us on what is going on with this oil of ours. He has been frank and fearless, a breath of fresh air; he is doing the work that the opposition shrinks from, which raises endless questions, and more concerns. But I must disagree ever so slightly with Dr. Adams today. The VP, Guyana’s de facto oil emperor, is nobody’s fool. To the VP’s credit, he does his homework, he puts in the time, he knows full well what he wants to put out before the public. For those reasons alone, Guyana’s oil prime minister is not one to allow himself to be “misled.” By anyone. Certainly not the EPA; and not with the shaky executive arrangements orchestrated by the PPP, acting under the self-serving directives of the same VP, that led to the ouster of Adams himself, and that is now in place at Guyana’s EPA.
Rather, I think that what is happening is that the Hon. Vice President is a sneaky accommodator, helper, protector, and troubleshooter on behalf of Exxon and this is even when Guyana’s interests that should come first are imperiled. In fact, the VP has shown himself time and again to be all too willing to bend over backwards, to look the other way, to smooth the way, for things pleasing to Exxon to occur. I am, thus, not buying anything about him being “misled.” For sure, leaders have to depend on the professionals and bureaucrats; but the VP is a known and proven self-starter, a self-educator of the first order. And he is not leaving his reliance for sensitive information to lesser mortals; particularly those that he knows are feeling their way in efforts to find some footing.
Editor, there is no way in hell that the VP would have accepted that (what we are now hearing) nonexistent 14-billion-cubic feet allowance, so to speak, for flaring in those documents (EIAs) that are supposed to support that number, and on which the Hon. Vice President supposedly relied. Though the VP and I differ vastly in personal conduct, I would give the man this: on something as vital and as sensitive (pivotal, too) like gas flaring, he would have wanted-indeed, demanded-to be shown in black and white the relevant extract/excerpt from the approving (applicable) EPA documents that supported that 14-billion cubic-feet maximum within which Exxon was permitted to flare. The bottom line is that the VP would not have taken that on any brief and say-so of some EPA functionary. He is not constructed that way, does not operate in that manner. Not on a troublesome issue of this magnitude that is attracting intensifying clamours locally, and with the growing heats on Exxon both within its own shareholder ranks, and wider afield.
Editor, I go further. I am of the belief that there is nobody in this country (for emphasis, nobody) who is as familiar with what is in those oil contracts and other documents than Guyana’s Vice President. This is what he lives for, since those documents contain the keys to the kingdom that he dreams of, which is encompassed in a single word: money. And here is another: me! I am not buying anything otherwise. As I tender this, I agree with Dr. Adams that this is part of Exxon’s “public relations campaign of confusion, misinformation and distraction” to suit its purposes. But nobody does that to Guyana’s Vice President. He does that to others, and is a proven master of those dark arts.
In view of the above, my position is simple and it is steely: the VP is not “misled” on the quantum permissible for gas flaring, pursuant to documented terms. The question is this: how much is he a willing participant in what is clearly of the misleading? No one simply drums up and drags out of thin air, absolutely nowhere, 14 billion-cubic-feet of flaring allowed on Guyana’s house, on its head, and with its authority. Let us get real, please.

Sincerely,
GHK Lall

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