Politics should not stand in the way of good ideas

Jun 06, 2026 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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(Kaieteur News) – One of the great weaknesses of our politics is that too often a good idea becomes a bad idea simply because it was proposed by the other side.

Instead of asking whether a policy is good for Guyana, we frequently ask who introduced it. If it came from a rival political party, the instinct is often to abandon it, criticise it, or replace it with something else. The result is that the country loses valuable opportunities and development becomes more expensive, slower, and less effective.

The recent announcement by President Irfaan Ali of a 25 per cent reduction in electricity tariffs for Bartica is welcome news. The reduction follows the commissioning of a 1.5-megawatt solar photovoltaic farm that cost just over G$700M. Whatever questions may exist about the cost of that project, it demonstrates that renewable energy can significantly lower electricity costs and reduce dependence on imported fuel.

The success of the Bartica solar project should also remind us of a vision that was articulated nearly a decade ago.

It was former President David Granger who championed Bartica as Guyana’s premier “green” town. After granting township status to Bartica in 2016, his administration launched an ambitious plan to transform the community into a model of sustainable development. The goal was not simply to beautify the town. It was to create a community powered increasingly by renewable energy, supported by green spaces, reduced plastic waste, and improved environmental management.

According to a report in the Guyana Times newspaper, in 2018, President Granger proudly declared that Bartica was becoming a model for the rest of the country. He expressed the hope that other towns would follow the same path. Whether one supported his government or not, the vision itself was sound.

Unfortunately, Guyana’s political culture often struggles with continuity. When governments change, priorities frequently change as well. Projects associated with one administration are viewed with suspicion by the next. In the process, valuable ideas are often discarded before they have the opportunity to mature.

Imagine if the vision of making Bartica a truly clean and green town had not only continued but had been expanded across the country. Imagine if renewable energy had become the central pillar of Guyana’s energy strategy over the last five years.

Instead, the country placed its bets on the Gas-to-Energy project. Natural gas is undoubtedly cleaner than heavy fuel oil and diesel. It produces fewer emissions and can help lower electricity costs. But let us not confuse cleaner with renewable. Natural gas remains a fossil fuel. It is a finite resource and still contributes to greenhouse gas emissions. But it also incurs high capital costs to bring the gas to shore and then to convert it to energy.

This is what the PPP/C government is trying to do. However, it has encountered repeated delays and appears likely to experience substantial cost overruns. What was initially presented as a relatively straightforward undertaking has become increasingly expensive and complicated.

But what if the same determination, resources, and financing had been directed toward large-scale renewable energy projects?

The government’s target is to secure roughly 300 megawatts of additional generating capacity through the Gas-to-Energy project. Yet the experience in Bartica demonstrates that solar energy can be deployed successfully in Guyana’s climate and can deliver immediate benefits to consumers.

No one is suggesting that solar power alone is a perfect solution. Renewable energy systems require battery storage and backup generation to ensure reliability. But around the world, countries are increasingly combining solar, wind, hydro, and storage technologies to produce cleaner and cheaper electricity. The costs of these technologies continue to decline year after year.

Had Guyana maintained a stronger focus on renewable energy and built upon the foundation established under the previous administration, it is possible that a substantial portion of that 300 megawatts could already have been in place today. It is also possible that the overall cost to taxpayers would have been lower than what the country may ultimately spend on the delayed Gas-to-Energy project.

The broader lesson, however, is not about solar energy versus natural gas. It is about political maturity.

A mature political culture recognises that no party has a monopoly on good ideas. governments should not feel compelled to discard a policy simply because it originated with their predecessors. Likewise, opposition parties should not oppose every initiative simply because they did not conceive it.

Bartica’s recent reduction in electricity costs is proof that good ideas can deliver real benefits. The tragedy is that Guyana too often allows political division to stand in the way of those ideas reaching their full potential.

The country deserves better. It deserves a politics mature enough to recognize that when an idea is good for Guyana, it should not matter which party thought of it first. And David Granger was on the right path with his green energy plan.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper)

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• gas-to-energy, good ideas, Peeping Tom, Politics

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