NewsWhore
07-10-2008, 03:50 PM
Radhames Segura, vice president of the State-run Electricity Companies (CDEEE), blamed the current energy problems on the increase in fuel prices. Segura says the government is working on a plan to tackle the situation. Segura was speaking during a visit to the National Business Council (CONEP). Segura's words echoed his statements made several years ago when he spoke about the renegotiation of energy contracts, the construction of coal-fired energy plants, the increased use of natural gas, use of wind technology and hydroelectric plants, according to a report in Listin Diario. Despite the fact that the same rhetoric has been employed for four years, not much has been accomplished in the energy sector, says CONEP. This conclusion was reached by CONEP during last week's release of a 'diagnostic' report, "The Dominican Economy: Pending macro-economic and sectorial challenges."
What is new, though, is that the government has been padding the sector with subsidies worth more than US$1 billion this year, which is financially unsustainable, says the CONEP report, highlighting the fact that there has been a reluctance to collect for energy supplied, to adjust the price of fuel and the electricity tariff, and an institutional weakness, as well as lack of diversification in the generation capacity over the past five years.
Segura said, "we are at CONEP explaining what the government is doing and planning and asking CONEP to work with us to find solutions, so that by 2012 we can say we have definitively solved the problems with blackouts," he said.
CONEP president Lisandro Macarulla says that it is the responsibility of the politicians to govern and while the business sector can adhere to policy, it is not their job to design public policy.
Marisol Vicens, former president of the National Association for Young Entrepreneurs (ANJE), says that Segura didn't present any new options to resolve the high cost and lack of reliability of power in the DR and just repeated the same rhetoric.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#3)
What is new, though, is that the government has been padding the sector with subsidies worth more than US$1 billion this year, which is financially unsustainable, says the CONEP report, highlighting the fact that there has been a reluctance to collect for energy supplied, to adjust the price of fuel and the electricity tariff, and an institutional weakness, as well as lack of diversification in the generation capacity over the past five years.
Segura said, "we are at CONEP explaining what the government is doing and planning and asking CONEP to work with us to find solutions, so that by 2012 we can say we have definitively solved the problems with blackouts," he said.
CONEP president Lisandro Macarulla says that it is the responsibility of the politicians to govern and while the business sector can adhere to policy, it is not their job to design public policy.
Marisol Vicens, former president of the National Association for Young Entrepreneurs (ANJE), says that Segura didn't present any new options to resolve the high cost and lack of reliability of power in the DR and just repeated the same rhetoric.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#3)