From Revelation to Revisionism: Nazim Baksh’s Late Awakening on Guyana’s Energy Future

Apr 13, 2026 Letters

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Dear Editor,

Guyana’s energy vulnerability is no secret — it’s a bill we all pay monthly. Nazim Baksh’s April 5 Chronicle column finally acknowledges what yours truly has consistently hammered since 2022: “Countries with a high share of renewable energy in their power mix tend to fare much better than those dependent on fossil fuels.” True enough. But this “stark reality” was dismissed as opposition noise when Bharrat Jagdeo and Irfaan Ali’s administration bet the nation’s grid on gas-to-energy (GTE), sidelining solar, hydro, and wind at every turn.

With Jagdeo’s boast inching closer to a USD3 billion reality.

Baksh now paints GTE as merely “envisioned as a bridge to renewables,” with a flip of the switch by 2030-2035 delivering the real fix. That’s revisionism dressed as revelation. The project was never pitched as a modest stepping stone — it was the transformational cure-all, sold with Jagdeo’s ironclad economist bravado. Back when costs were pegged at $900 million, he waved off demands for an independent feasibility study: internal simulations and his world-class expertise made it unnecessary. No public economic modeling, no fresh analysis — just trust in the master planner’s head.

Consider Jagdeo’s track record on feasibility challenges. In 2022, as costs doubled to over $2 billion, he insisted the project remained “feasible,” promising electricity at 4-5¢/kWh because “NGL sales would make power practically free.” By 2024, he called it “the most feasible venture I’ve ever seen in my life,” blasting “naysayers” trying to “discredit” it for political gain. Critics, including engineers and the IEEFA, warned of financial unsustainability without transparent studies — warnings met with redirection to U.S. EXIM Bank’s limited due diligence, not a full feasibility.

PULL QUOTE: “The Gas-to-Energy plant at Wales was envisioned as a bridge to renewables… accounting for between 60 and 90 per cent of grid power.” —Nazim Baksh

Fast-forward to today: GTE’s price tag nears $3 billion, mired in litigation, controversy, and the same secrecy that birthed Skeldon Sugar’s $250 million disaster — zero tonnes to show. Baksh admits Guyana imports 100% of its gasoline, diesel, and LPG, with 93-97% of electricity from dirty fuel oil per the U.S. EIA. Our $1 billion annual fuel bill rivals the development budget of a “resource-rich” nation. Yet Jagdeo’s defiance held: gas first, renewables later. The justification by Jagdeo “renewables progress is too slow and it will be too late for our developmental pace.”

That “bridge” was flogged as the destination. President Ali echoed it at COP26, vowing 70% carbon emissions cut by 2030 — ambitious words beside a diesel-choked grid and GTE as the centerpiece. In 2022, Jagdeo boasted GTE alone would slash consumer costs by 50%. This writer asked then, repeatedly: What about renewables? Subsidies for local panel assembly? Human capital in green manufacturing? The defiant response: nothing

Baksh touts gains — 17 MW solar PV by 2022 (up 224% from 2020), a dozen solar farms at Lethem, Bartica, and beyond, 30,000 households now solar-powered. Amaila Falls hydropower at 165 MW looms. Renewables hover at 5% of the mix, per Prime Minister Phillips. Guyana’s 2,300-2,500 sunshine hours scream potential.

PULL QUOTE: “Countries that bet on renewables are less exposed when fossil fuel markets convulse. Guyana has the sunlight, the surplus oil revenues… What is needed now is speed and scale.” — Nazim Baksh.

But these are echoes of what could have been. APNU’s inaction? Fair critique. Yet PPP/C’s six years doubled down on fossil bridges while renewables crawled. Baksh’s Ontario anecdote — feed-in tariffs, rent-to-own solar — mirrors what I have consistently advocated: rooftop national program, every new home pre-fitted. Instead, we got GTE arrogance, now a white elephant shadowing real transition.

This writer’s cornerstone still remains accountability over arrogance as the realisation that their speed is stalled by the very architects Baksh now soft-pedals. Iran’s Strait of Hormuz closure exposes the folly: Asia’s blackouts, our West Coast stations drained. Guyana produces oil but imports 4 million barrels yearly, mostly U.S. gasoil — 20,000 barrels daily.

Baksh welcomes the pivot — we welcome converts. But leadership isn’t late epiphany; it’s owning the delay. GTE, birthed in hubris, cloaked in secrecy, leaves more questions than megawatts. The discarded cornerstone? Renewables first — with open books, public buy-in, and no economist’s ego overriding feasibility.

Citizens deserve energy sovereignty, not another Skeldon. Informed by facts, real in critique, relevant to tomorrow — that’s way to the future, Mr. Baksh, the sunlight’s still shining. Time to build under it, not bridge over it.

Sincerely,
Hemdutt Kumar

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• APNU’s, EXIM Bank’s, GTE, Nazim Baksh, Revisionism

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