It is a measure of the calibre of some of the geniuses who run our country that at a time when global climate change is impacting Ghana negatively, the Sunon Asogli Power Company's Chinese board chairperson, Mr. Xi Xiahai, can confidently state that his company will be permitted to build a coal-fired power plant in Ghana. Incredible.
How can that be? And how can the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) justify this outrage? How foolish and ignorant Mr. Xi Xiahai and his ilk must think Ghanaians are. Pity.
No doubt he will dangle the fool's-gold-carrot of "sophisticated filtration systems" to trap particulants and other pollutants in the smoke belching out from the cone towers of his coal-fired power stations, in front of the too-clever-by-half, self-seeking senior public servants and see-no-evil-hear-no-evil politicians (both in the executive and the legislature), who profit mightily from selliing Ghana short.
Well, those so-called sophisticated filtration systems have not made the slightest bit of difference to the air-quality in Beijing and the many Chinese cities whose hapless inhabitants are forced to put up with very poor air quality - that is health-damaging in the extreme - on a daily basis. That is why China is spending billions of dollars increasing its renewable power generating capacity.
It is time those who currently lead our country understood that they ought to be extremely wary of the senior public servants whose job it is to advise them - if they want to be returned to power again in 2016. There is absolutely no sense in allowing the Sunon Asogli Power Company and the Volta Aluminium Company Limited (VALCO) - or any other company for that matter - to build coal-fired power plants in Ghana.
The government of President Mahama was not elected to sanction the building of health-destroying dirty power plants anywhere in our country. To do so would be a grave error of judgement that they will come to rue one day - as sure as day follows night.
When the effects of the pollution caused by such a power plant begins to affect the quality of the air around the area it is located in, and residents begin to protest loudly that it is damaging their health, it will be pointed to by their political opponents, as yet another example of poor judgement, by an incompetent regime.
The energy ministry's ministerial team ought to ask their advisors to tell them precisely how the air in Beijing and so many other major Chinese cities ended up becoming so badly polluted - to the extent that it is now destroying the health of millions of their inhabitants, as well as lowering the quality of life in cities across a vast swathe of the landmass of China.
Some of us are getting tired of being led by provincial-minded politicians (from across the spectrum: egregious examples being the Allottey Jacobs of the National Democratic Congress, and the Antwi Bosiako Wuntumis and Sammy Awukus, of the New Patriotic Party) whom it appears haven't the foggiest idea about the dangers inherent in the phenomenon of global climate change - and the threat it poses to the well-being of Mother Ghana and the Ghanaian people.
This is an existential matter that concerns present and future generations of the Ghanaian people - in case that has not yet dawned on those geniuses. Our ruling elites are relatively well-compensated for a reason: so that they will take well-thought-through decisions that redound to the benefit of our nation and all its people, at all material times.
With respect, we demand that the ministerial team at the energy ministry, requests that Ghana's ambassador to Belgium invites GDF SUEZ Trading (+32567321) and Geldof (+32567321) to visit Ghana, as soon as practicable - to make a presentation to the government: about the Electrabel Rodenhuise 100℅ biomass power plant.
Mr. Xi Xiahai and his Ghanaian partners should be invited to sit in on that presentation too. Ditto the Volta River Authority and the other independent power producers in Ghana. It will be an eye-opener for all of them.
For their information, the Electrabel Rodenhuise biomass plant was converted from burning coal to wood pellets - and now produces renewable energy from wood fuel. The conversion from coal to biomass means avoiding 1.2 million tonnes of CO2 emissions a year. And the power it generates is cheaper than it previously was when the plant used coal. Food for thought - in a nation whose hard-done-by and overtaxed citizens are desperate for not-so-expensive electricity.
The government of Ghana ought to ask the Sunon Asogli Power Company to collaborate with Geldof and GDF SUEZ Trading to build a 100% biomass power plant in Ghana. Mr. Xi Xiahai's confounded coal-fired power plants are not good for Ghana. Period. And no power company must be allowed to build coal-fired power plants anywhere in Ghana.
The energy ministry's ministerial team must ask the Sunon Asogli Power Company's chairperson, Mr. Xi Xiahai, and his Ghanaian partners to study the Green Max European project to convert fossil-fueled thermal power plants to 100℅ biomass. The Sunon Asogli Power Company can save itself the hundreds of millions of dollars it proposes to invest in building a dedicated port to handle imported coal - were it to adopt the Green Max biomass business model.
If they do so, instead of bringing a dirty power plant to pollute Ghana, they will produce renewable power with a green supply chain based on community agro-forestry plantations of fast-growing trees countrywide, which will create wealth for rural Ghana and enable District Assemblies across Ghana to have a reliable revenue stream based on job-creating sustainable development throughout rural Ghana.
If they are not yet aware of it, the energy ministry's ministerial team is becoming notorious for daft decisions that are not in the long-term interest of Ghana and its people - and the blame can be laid firmly at the doorstep of the senior public servants who advise them. Their dealings with the corrupt and opaque Rusatom is a classic example. Mt. Xi Xiahai's Sunon Asogli Power Company must not be allowed to build coal-fired power plants anywhere in Ghana. It will not be in the long-term interest of our homeland Ghana and its people. A word to the wise...
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