Radio Address by Governor John P. de Jongh, Jr. Regarding the Recent Agreement Between the Waste Management Authority and the Water and Power Authority of agreements with affiliates of the Alpine Energy Group

August 14, 2009

Listen to the Governor's Radio Address .mp3 (7.1 MB)

GOVERNOR de Jongh: This past Monday I hosted a ceremony at Government House at which we announced a great step forward in solving two great problems that we have faced in the Virgin Islands for years: Our need to solve our landfill problem and the development of alternative energy solutions for the Territory. 

The signing by the Waste Management Authority and the Water and Power Authority of agreements with affiliates of the Alpine Energy Group marks a great step forward towards solving these two great challenges that we have faced our residents for decades 

One set of agreements requires Alpine to finance, build and operate two plants, one on St. Croix and one on St. Thomas, that will convert an estimated 146,000 tons per year of municipal solid waste into refuse-derived fuel, which will be combined with petroleum coke, a by-product of the refining of oil by Hovensa on St. Croix, to be used as fuel to generate steam and electric power for the Territory. 

Instead of having our landfills being piled higher and higher on each island, both of which have caused problems and have been in violation of environmental laws for years, we will begin taking this considerable portion of our garbage and using it as fuel to make less expensive electricity than WAPA is able to presently produce using fuel oil. 

We will developing alternative energy solutions for the Territory and begin moving away from fossil fuels, producing electricity and water from municipal solid waste --garbage --and greatly reducing what we have had to store at our dumps, all together in one jointly designed and developed set of projects for st. Croix and St. Thomas. 

As I said on Monday, and I will say again, we all should salute the efforts of the Boards and Executive Directors and staffs of the Waste Management Authority and WAPA for working to this accomplishment. We should also welcome Alpine Energy as a partner with our agencies and an important participant in our Virgin Islands economy. 

Since Monday, I have been reflecting on what we have done as well as what we have left to do to in developing and implementing an overall Energy Strategy for our islands that will allow us to grow and develop our economy, to grow and develop opportunities for our people, now and long into the future. 

We know we cannot continue to do what we have been doing. We cannot remain dependent on non-renewable sources of energy, especially oil products whose prices may again, through forces outside of our control, rise so high as to drive us to our knees. We know that we cannot just pile our garbage ever higher polluting the lagoons in St. Thomas, threatening our airport operations on St. Croix, and risking fire disaster on both islands. That is the old way of doing things. That way will no longer work and our people have demanded that we change the business as usual approach to our problems. We have been working on many approaches to solving our energy crisis and I believe that we took a very good step in the right direction last week. 

But we did more than this and we should take note of what we did do and how we did it. 

I have spoken a lot about how we are but one government and how we must recognize this and act accordingly. This we just did. Yes, I have proposed moving the Waste Management Authority into the central government since the general fund pays for its operations, and, yes, I still want the legislature to act on this. But even so the Waste Management Authority acting in cooperation with WAPA showed what can happen when egos and bureaucratic walls are pulled down and teamwork and strong alliances are built up. Together and locally we have the intellectual capacity to get the job done when we put aside individual autonomies and all put our minds to work for the people of the Virgin Islands. 

We have also taken a big step forward in building our economy both in moving toward solving the long-standing waste management problems, and in providing alternative sources of water and power. Most immediately, the Alpine projects promise jobs, immediate boosts in construction jobs and future jobs including the kind of sustaining high-tech positions that are really careers for those who make themselves ready and able to fill these positions. The construction jobs that will become available when the permits are granted and the construction begins will be a very welcome boost in these times of economic stress and downturn. 

Lastly, I take great pride in another aspect of this new approach and that is that it will allow us to set a course and an example for our sister islands in the Caribbean. I very much hope that what we are attempting to do will help us build the future for the region, that these recent agreements will, hopefully, be the model for the rest of Caribbean. I believe that these important steps that we are taking will eventually provide for us an exportable intellectual commodity -our ability to lead the search for solutions to problems like those of waste management and high energy demands that plague all the islands in our region. 

If we in these Islands can work together to solve our problems we will be able to take even greater pride when we can help our neighbors solve theirs. This is a future for the Virgin Islands that I believe we can all believe in and all work towards. 

God bless you and God bless the Virgin Islands. 

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