The EPA clearly not working in the interests of Guyana

Feb 11, 2022 Editorial

Kaieteur News – Whenever we think of Guyana’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), blood rushes to the head, and the self-control that is needed comes under severe strain.
Anyone with a small part of a functioning brain, who takes a look at the decisions of the EPA, is sure to conclude that something is seriously wrong with this body that should be protecting this country and its citizens.
It is because of this that we wonder if the local EPA is either a shell entity, or one that is engaged in a shell game. When the sum of the EPA’s positions is considered, we think that the EPA is both. For it is deeply involved in the most twisted game in town. Because what the EPA is doing amounts to nothing less than organisational pornography, so obscene it is, so questionable is the legality of its decisions, and so unacceptable it is to those Guyanese who can still think for themselves, still have some commonsense wisdom to assist them to sift the agency’s vulgarity and impotency.
The latest piece of confirming evidence rebounds to the EPA’s discredit. It is the situation where the “EPA quietly amends permit for Liza Phase Two project -still fails to hold parent companies liable for oil spills” (KN January 23). The people at the EPA are representing Guyanese citizens. Therefore, they should not be going about their mandate and business “quietly” as in sneakily and smartly, in the hope that Guyanese are not paying attention, and the fast one that they are pulling will escape notice and scathing comment.
Guyanese are concerned about the possibly devastating effects of a catastrophic oil spill. More than a few voices have clamoured for comprehensive insurance coverage in such an event, and which is paid for fully by ExxonMobil, the parent company of Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Ltd. (EEPGL). As posted on its website, the EPA reports that the insurance coverage Guyanese are crying out for will be provided by EEPGL, the local subsidiary of ExxonMobil. Specifically, the posting on the EPA’s website informed Guyanese, under the section of the amended permit titled “Liability for Pollution Damage”, that “EEPGL shall have insurance of such type and in such amount as is customary in the international petroleum industry in accordance with good oil field practices for Petroleum Operations in progress offshore Guyana.”
At first glance, this appears to be comforting, when all the expansive explanatory clauses are considered, in that there is going to be insurance coverage.
It is not comforting, and it is not good enough. ExxonMobil and its partners are proud of boasting from their glittering corporate towers in Houston and New York of how fabulously they are doing with Guyana’s cheap oil, and under the auspices of the contract it executed with local leaders. Thus, it is a remarkable piece of fancy leadership footwork and corporate sleight of hand for ExxonMobil to distance itself from vital insurance coverage in the event of a calamitous oil spill in its operations. When the insurance bag is placed in the hands of its Guyana subsidiary, then it is guaranteed that Guyanese would be left holding the bag should an environmental disaster from an oil spill hit us. Since everything else of substance tiers up and ends up under the name of Houston-based ExxonMobil, it is unnerving and unacceptable that something as sensitive and crucial as expensive and sustained oil spill insurance coverage ends up under the name and in the books of the Guyana subsidiary. It is as good as if we have no insurance coverage at all.
Guyana’s EPA should not be presiding over what is nothing but a slick, but very obvious, dodge by ExxonMobil chiefs to shirk their obligations to the people of Guyana. The EPA should be drawing a line in the sand and say that this does not work, so go back and get real insurance coverage with the parent company’s name and people (ExxonMobil) on the dotted line. The EPA must aggressively represent the interests of Guyanese, and not be so glaringly protective of ExxonMobil. Guyana’s EPA must cease being so hostile to the wellbeing of Guyanese, and so friendly and helpful to ExxonMobil’s interests.

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