TT’s free-bee to Alcoa

The Editor: “Fifteen years of free gas!” Yes, TT, no matter how they hide, disguise or package it, the deal is 15) years free gas to Alcoa plus subsidised electricity! That, according to informed sources, is a conditionality to which the Trinidad and Tobago Government has agreed, in order to cut the deal with Alcoa’s and their proposed 341,000 metric tonnes Aluminium Smelter in the Cedros Peninsula. Why 15 years? Why not five or 20? What is the specified amount? Daily requirements perhaps? All of that is top secret. And no questions from Opposition bench as yet and none apparently forthcoming. While it may appear that the gas will be going to the Government of Trinidad and Tobago, in truth and in fact the gas will be going to Alcoa, the TT Government fronting the give-away.

For our Government has agreed to build the electricity plant for the exclusive use of Alcoa. The TT Government will finance, construct, operate, fuel and maintain the plant and then sell for nine cents a kw, the same electricity for which the people of Trinidad and Tobago are currently paying 15 cents per kw. One wonders to what extent the TT Government which is making a strong bid for headquartering the FTAA is violating the free trade idea by offering such a generous subsidy to Alcoa. Did not ISPATT encounter some difficulties a few years ago with our “subsidised steel” in the US? One wonders how they will rationalise the entry of subsidised aluminium? 

What more does the deal require TT giving to this international conglomerate? In addition to site development, the TT Government will have to build Alcoa a state-of-the-art port, (NB. The proposed smelter plant will reportedly consume 570 mw of electric power, which is approximately 50 percent of our current power consumption in TT). Additionally, the TT Government will have to provide millions of gallons of WASA water on a daily basis, since Alcoa does not intend to build their water system to cool their plant. This in a situation where the people of Icacos have not received pipe borne water for the past three weeks. Additionally, Alcoa will take at least 1,500 acres of residential, forest and agricultural lands from the original 2,000 acres plus site for their Smelter.

Raphael Sebastien
Cedros Peninsula
United Cedros