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Renewables – where we stand

Nov 09, 2021 Editorial

Kaieteur News – We have to get this oil from below the seabed. But it can’t be willy-nilly, and in a pell-mell rush to conform to the dictates of Exxon. What is good for Exxon and its expectant investors, is not necessarily good for Guyana and its hopeful peoples. We have to demonstrate that this oil wealth has not made us so stupid that we are reckless, lacking in wisdom. Guyana’s political leaders and, by the same token, anticipating Guyanese citizens must not be so heedless that they, too, join the ranks of the foolish. The problem is that Guyana’s frenzied oil journey is already well underway.
We have longed in vain for generations for this oil. Now we dream in vain no more, because it is here and in huge billion-barrel equivalents. But it is Guyana’s fate that its oil prospects collide frontally with broadening and strengthening global fears about climate change, and an almost overpowering sweep regarding the need for the most urgent remedial actions. There is growing and unrelenting insistence on migrating from age-old fossil fuel products to renewable energy sources. The case against one and for the other speak to the new and powerful realities that Guyana confront, now that it has finally discovered this oil wealth below its feet and, at long last, feel it pass through the fingers and hands of its peoples.
Fossil fuels are not dead, far from it. But the first warning clangs of its death knell have been sounded and heard across the globe. It is an ice-cold splash in the bathwater of Guyanese, who have been waiting for so long, hoping for an eternity. We have oil and we have opportunity. But we also have to take cognisance of where the world stands and where it is heading. The world is in a race towards renewable energy sources. Wind and solar sources are the new big boys on the energy block. They grow in strength and influence.
Renewables are cheaper and cleaner; in fact, they are much cheaper than previously thought, which is what KN made one of its leading frontpage captions on Sunday last: “Renewable energy is cheaper than previously thought, new report reveals – and could be a gamechanger in the climate change battle” (KN October 24). In the head-to-head cost comparisons between fossil fuels (coal, oil, gas) and renewables (solar, wind), now in fashion, renewables keep coming out ahead. And in the very sensitive clean air and environment fight (it is a war now), fossil fuels keep coming on the losing side of the scoreboard.
All of this is powerful stuff, but where does it leave Guyana with its newfound wealth in fabled quantities? All eyes are now firmly fixed on this little land mass in South America. From a place once denounced as backward and way out, it has now transformed into the place to be, and everyone wants to be here. It is heady stuff, and make men better than our current crop of leaders lose their heads. Yet, it is at this time, when our heads are in the clouds, that we must have our feet set well on the ground.
We want this oil out of the ground, but now with climate change pressures and renewable energy revelations, we must regroup and rebalance sensibly. Exxon has gambled heavily on Guyana, and it has quarter to quarter performance weights (earnings) hanging on the heads of its leaders. Our own leaders must recognise this for what it is worth, and move to capitalise on this with energy and wisdom.
We will not stop production, but we will stagger it, using any array of concerns (flaring, insurance, costs, politics, locals, and more) to instill some sense in the Exxon juggernaut. U.S. political powers and their plenipotentiaries are sure to recoil in anger, given their roles in Guyana’s power struggle. But PPP leaders will be wise to read the climate change and renewable tea leaves, and adjust accordingly. We produce on our own renewed terms. We embark on projects that are more renewables-oriented, and move away from those that are not. This is our position, even as we discern that the West wants to get ahead in selling its renewables technologies.

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