A much anticipated town meeting on liquefied natural gas (LNG) has been postponed for the second time in response to the Prime Minister’s health scare on Tuesday.
Originally planned for Tuesday, the meeting was rescheduled for tonight, but has been postponed yet again out of respect for Prime Minister Perry Christie, who was rushed to hospital on Tuesday suffering from an attack of severe hypertension. It is now set to take place at the British Colonial Hilton next week Thursday, May 12.
Minister of Trade and Industry Leslie Miller said he is fully aware that a heated debate continues to rage on the question of whether LNG facilities should be established in the Bahamas. He assured the public that LNG industry experts scheduled to attend the meeting will be present next week to answer any questions. “The FNM was decent enough to cancel their rally so we decided to postpone our meeting our of respect for the PM. We’ll schedule another date, but tentatively it is for next week Thursday,” Mr Miller said.
Responding to recent remarks made in the press, Mr Miller challenged US anti-LNG lobbyists Tim and Hayden Riley, and local environmentalist Sam Duncombe to “refute the facts” that have been printed in the full page advertisements in local newspapers over the past few weeks.
“What country could have their whole economic life based on one sector? I was really disturbed that she (Mrs Duncombe) said that no industrial undertaking should be made in the Bahamas and that we should just be totally for tourism. She have to be crazy. We have to diversify and expand our economy so that Bahamians could get other jobs other than tourism related ones.
“I want to challenge her and that Riley group to refute any of the facts in our advertisement in regard to LNG being safe for the Bahamas. I want them to refute an iota in the full page ad, on any of the facts listed by the BEST Commission and the Ministry of Health, and Trade and Industry,” Miller added.
He said that instead of bringing facts to the debate as the pro LNG lobby has, those against the proposals bring “nothing that can stand the light of day.” Mr Miller said that he was bothered, not as a minister, but as a Bahamian, about how “some of these activists” views are being accepted on conjecture, untruths, and foolishness.
By PAUL G TURNQUEST, Tribune Staff Reporter
