Why Exxon would not want a Vincent Adams at the EPA

Jun 06, 2022 Editorial

Kaieteur News – The people leading the way in Guyana for Exxon were shuddering and recoiling at the thought of a Vincent Adams. They didn’t want him anywhere around the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), not even as a security guard, much less its head. He was too knowledgeable, too wise, too courageous, too Guyanese; the man was a bone in the throat, a pain elsewhere. So, Vincent Adams had to go, and the sellouts that we have for leaders in the PPP/C Government were only too glad to grovel before the dictates of Exxon and deliver his head on a platter to them.
Dr. Adams has publicly asserted, even attested, before that this was where he stood before Exxon on flaring, and what should be incorporated into the permit renewal. He met, spoke, and wrote about (in addition to flaring) round the clock monitoring by people who knew what they were about, had the facilities to do so, and the finances to oversee our offshore oilfields (by the way, are they really ours, given what is going on?). He met with adversaries and helpful people, spoke and wrote, about proper insurance and drop-dead issues that had to be fixed prior to the issuance of any renewals and so forth. (Refer to the article “US$50 fine per ton of pollutant an insult to Guyanese” -KN June 3).
Clearly, the seniors at Exxon had to have had serious concerns over the obstacle that this man Adams represented. And when the corporate captains in Texas have a problem, they take care of it with authority and finality. In brief, Dr. Vincent Adams, then Executive Director of the EPA possessed no utility to their interests, so he had to go. Leaders in the PPP/C Government, already compromised and subservient to the exploitations and manipulations of Exxon, were ready to spring into action to kick out Vincent Adams, and they had the best excuse of all. He is more of a political figure, less a public servant.
Interestingly, PPP/C leadership worshippers, defenders of any and every failure of this government, and attackers of anyone who speaks against their betrayals and corruptions have been deafeningly silent when Dr. Adams comes out and says this was what went down. They are unable to do so, not when a roomful of local and foreign people was present. Not when a long document trail has been left. That is, unless that too has been deep-sixed, and made to disappear. Not when people are sensible enough to keep revealing records. They could run, hide, duck, and mislead with the usual foolishness about “Confidentiality” and “Most Secret” but once it has been documented, then all bets are off. Whatever the leaders of the PPP/C Government and their defenders put out are nothing but transparent fig leaves, the equivalent of fast-food drive-throughs. This is how they come across, as deceivers and tricksters, nothing but the worst of unscrupulous verbal fraudsters.
Where all this leaves us is with a permit renewal that shouldn’t have been without extracting our gram of flesh (insurance, money subsidy for our fishers). We would add that since Exxon is determined to flare at our expense, then let the increase tacked on be US$50, or anywhere north of that starting figure. It is no secret that Exxon has access to the technology, the sophisticated gas compressor systems, but it is extremely expensive. There is no need to spend that kind of cash on a place with the simpering, weak-kneed leaders we have, and the largely divided, indifferent citizens present.
In this instance of the Liza-1 permit renewal, it should be noted that the focus and emphasis are not on complete renegotiation of the oil contract, as welcomed as that would be, but chipping away bit by bit at some of the excesses that favour Exxon and its partners, while building a little block at a time the protections and corrections that this country so urgently need.
The closing position is this: If we couldn’t use the Liza-1 permit renewal to get conditions of substance, when we had Exxon in a dependent situation, then there isn’t much more we may be able to get from it, thanks to this feeble, collaborating PPP Government.

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