St. Maarten Private Eye

Not much enthusiasm eh?…well, I guess it’s not a number one priority right now, but I agree with you that laws and subsidies are needed to jump-start the market; and they can be slowly phased out as production revs up and equipment prices come down. I think a feed-in tariff should be established and people ought be looking at photovoltaics and solar thermal collectors. One must focus on local-generation technologies such as wind turbines, solar panels and household-size boilers to cogenerate power. I am well aware of the investments it will require, but with rising fuel costs and climate worries, we must think a lot harder about how we get our power. Now, taking measures is the future. And these technologies are increasingly hitting the market and at declining prices. Wake up! Use the sun to the fullest. Even in Germany, villages have solar collectors and I can assure you, Germany is not the sunniest place in the world, especially not in the Black Forest (der Schwarzwald).
But in order to make this work, cooperation is essential. The community must work together with the government and vice versa. Like I said, a feed-in tariff would be excellent, it will be the perfect measure to promote local sources of alternative energy. Although, it would be worthless if local sources of alternative energy happen to be nonexistent…
Anyway, the number one priority I mentioned above is of course the landfill. No civilized country has that! And above all not in their capital! Yes, keep cruise tourists in P’burg, I couldn’t agree more, but what if they - when wondering about town - end up staring at the Pond Fill? That would not be the best Kodak moment, now would it? Or when cruise passengers (I support the writer above) walk to P’burg and big trucks emitting filthy black clouds race past them? Won’t make them want to revisit the island!
By the bye, ought we not sent a get-well card to the youngest member of the ExCo? Once recovered, perhaps he’ll decide to pay a visit to SXM PE…