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Environmental Group Asks PUC to Rescind Rate Increase Love FM radio January 17, 2006 |
-------------------------------------------------------- BELIZE DAILY NEWS MAIL from LOVE FM and NaturalightProductions.com Stories as of January 17, 2006, posted at 0:32 pm -------------------------------------------------------- TODAYS BELIZE NEWS HEADLINES-- ..ENVIRONMENTAL GROUP ASKS PUC TO RESCIND RATE INCREASE ..BTB AND BTIA TALK ABOUT TOURISM AS PART OF TOURISM WEEK ..U.S. EMBASSY DONATES EDUCATIONAL MATERIALS TO PRISON ..POLICE NEWS ..HYDE BROTHERS SENTENCED TO 12 YEARS IN PRISON ..N.A.C. ISSUES STATEMENT ON WORKPLACE HIV TESTING ..FRANKIE RENEAU ARRIVES IN BELIZE TO WORK ON 'WE ARE BELIZE' -------------------------------------------------------- NEWS STORIES -------------------- ENVIRONMENTAL GROUP ASKS PUC TO RESCIND RATE INCREASE A letter has been sent to the Public Utilities Commission asking it to review and revoke the decision to grant a raise to Belize Electricity Limited. Love News spoke to Candy Gonzalez of the Belize Institute of Environmental Law and Policy. Candy Gonzalez: The rulings within the P.U.C. are that they are supposed to notify people and that they are supposed to allow people to comment so that a wise decision could be made on rates and what's best for the consumer as well as looking out for the public utilities. They are supposed to balance everything, now when they sent the request for the rate increase for B.E.L. they sent it right during the holidays. They sent it on the very same day a new law was passed, that is statutory instrument number 145. They also gave only a short time to comment when you consider when it was put in the paper and when comments had to be in was right during the holidays. There was only one paper that came out so essential there were only three working days that were available to anybody even to find out never mind to actually sit down and write a comment and that's wrong. We asked Gonzalez why the need for the letter. Candy Gonzalez: Under the law you have thirty days to comment on the decision that the P.U.C. makes. Within the thirty days when we wrote the letter not only do I believe that they have not given people a chance to view the information but most of the information they contend is private B.E.L. doesn't want released to the people. Like what are the power purchase agreements? What's the cost for construction of the Chalillo Project? We've never been told the truth about those things even in the news interviews they've said everything from 33 million up to 100 million dollars U.S. Now that's a pretty wide stretch and they should know a little bit closer as to how much it's going to cost them between 33 million and 100 million. To keep saying the reason things went up is because of a three-year delay because of the court case then what people don't remember is that construction never stopped during the court case. There was not an injunction, the court allowed B.E.L. to continue so they ! continued construction. It had to do with the faulty geology and the fault that they took out the fault line out of the map that's on the E.I.A. and they actually had to redesign the dam to make it safer because the geology studies were incorrect. So it was not any court case or the people protesting that held up the job but it was the inaccuracy of the information they were dealing with. Return to the StopFortis.org home page... |
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