Min. Bean On Throne Speech Initiatives

Newly appointed Minister of Environment, Planning and Infrastructure Strategy Marc Bean held a press conference yesterday [Nov.16] to provide further details on upcoming initiatives within his Ministry.

Minister Bean spoke about a number of  issues including the development of an Infrastructure Strategy by the end of 2011, reducing our electrical consumption, increasing the amount of electricity produced by renewable technologies, reducing greenhouse gas emissions from local transportation and continuing efforts to establish a Space Enterprise Zone in Bermuda.

Speaking about the City of Hamiltont waterfront development, the Minister said: “Our Ministry views the development of the waterfront in the City of Hamilton as a key component of our national infrastructure, and will therefore fully participate in the work to be spearheaded by BermudaFirst. The city waterfront presents an excellent opportunity for us to demonstrate a necessary but delicate balance between economic, social and environmental concerns.”

The Minister’s full remarks follow below:

Good Afternoon,

I am pleased to have an opportunity to elaborate on the initiatives outlined in the Speech from the Throne for the Ministry of Environment, Planning and Infrastructure Strategy.

You will be aware that I have only recently been appointed Minister, and for that I must express my deepest appreciation to the Hon. Premier for the confidence she has placed in me. The Ministry of the Environment, Planning and Infrastructure Strategy is a key, strategic Ministry within the Government.

The importance of this Ministry, and the significance of my responsibilities, are very clear to me. I can assure you and the Premier that I will dedicate myself to ensuring that this Ministry achieves the targets she has set for us.

One such target is the development of an Infrastructure Strategy by the end of December, 2011. Our Premier has shown significant foresight and leadership by asking the country to focus on Infrastructure planning, as only one other nation, the UK, has actually completed such a strategy.

Others are now in various stages of development. Our work, under the able leadership of my predecessor, the Hon. Walter H. Roban, has already begun.

It is important to clarify that our Ministry’s role will be to define the strategy for Bermuda. Other Ministries will have the responsibility to deliver the projects contained within that strategy.

Our strategy will contain a Vision for the next 10 to 20 years, or longer. The Vision will focus not only on growth of our infrastructure, but also on the replacement of aging infrastructure.

The strategy will consider national priorities, and the sequencing of projects to be completed. This must involve affordability of the project to both the user and the taxpayer.

The strategy will also consider the steps we as a country must take in order to create the necessary conditions to enable investment in Bermuda. This could include, for example, an analysis of our regulatory system, our tax system, and the roles of both the public and private sectors.

The strategy will also investigate the procurement models that would be best suited to each project.

Our Ministry views the development of the waterfront in the City of Hamilton as a key component of our national infrastructure, and will therefore fully participate in the work to be spearheaded by BermudaFirst.

The city waterfront presents an excellent opportunity for us to demonstrate a necessary but delicate balance between economic, social and environmental concerns.

We recently released our Energy White Paper and have been continuously addressing issues arising from that paper in the local media. We look forward to a full debate of the proposals contained in the White Paper during this session of Parliament.

In addition, we will bring forward changes in legislation and in policy to help drive us toward the targets set for the year 2020.

These targets include reducing our electrical consumption twenty percent below 2008 levels, increasing the amount of electricity produced by renewable technologies to thirty percent, and reducing by thirty percent greenhouse gas emissions from local transportation.

Yes, these are ambitious and aggressive targets. But as stated in the Speech from the Throne, “given our responsibility for sustaining Bermuda’s, and indeed, the planet’s environment”, they are targets that must be reached.

The production of electricity is a major contributor to our green house gas emissions, given our reliance on fossil fuels for its generation. The Fuel Adjustment Rate is a little understood but most vexing component of each family’s and each business’s electricity bill.

The Fuel Adjustment Rate has been with us since the 1970’s. It arose at a time when the cost of fuel first began to fluctuate and have an impact on a utility’s pricing. The Fuel Adjustment Rate is not designed to enable a utility to make a profit. But it is designed to allow a utility to pass the impact of fluctuations in fuel on to the consumer.

As the supply of fuel decreases, and the demand for fuel increases, we can expect the Fuel Adjustment Rate to continue to have a major impact on our cost of electricity. In conjunction with our efforts to reach our Energy White Paper targets by the year 2020, we will also investigate a way forward with regard to the Fuel Adjustment Rate.

As a part of our efforts to create new and exciting sources of revenue, we will continue our recent efforts to establish a Space Enterprise Zone in Bermuda.

Again, continuing the efforts of my predecessor, we will leverage our expertise in international business and regulatory affairs, and our long history with the NASA space programme to entice participants in the space industry to view Bermuda as a hub for their operations.

Similarly, we will further develop our efforts to enable a major satellite industry operator to place a satellite in our Orbital slot located at 96.2 degrees West Longitude.

No doubt from this brief description of only some of the work of the Ministry of Environment, Planning and Infrastructure Strategy, you can understand our importance to this Government’s efforts at Building One Another, Together.

We understand our role, and we are ready to play our part.

Thank you.

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Category: All, Environment