Vincent Adams on fire
Kaieteur News – Unsurprisingly, groups of powerful people have so many problems with Dr. Vincent Adams, former head of the Guyana Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), after stopping a decade in the United States at his Department of Energy, among other places. He came here and the reports are that he caused discomfort to the former coalition government and current PPP governors. Needless to say, many of the concerns and alarms (most likely anger, too) could be directly traceable to the influential people at the helm of ExxonMobil, who had no use for it, and throw it away around their weight behind the scenes to be rid of it. Well, by all means, they’ve left a genie out of the bottle in the presence, voice and insights that Dr. brings. Adams. Because as the saying goes: you cannot keep a good man down; and Vincent Adams is as much a man as the common sense of the PPP and his Exxon colleagues.
The first thing that every Guyanese, regardless of his political attitude, must come up with, is that Dr. Adams is a highly regarded Guyanese for the knowledge and expertise of oil affairs. He has signaled his willingness to serve his homeland, but our weak and troubled political leaders are afraid to use his skills. They fear his fearlessness while standing up for what protects Guyana, and what might be clean, and what could help the citizens of this country prosper. But he is an unwelcome man for those same reasons, he would go against the tide of silence and cover and questionable co-operation.
Unsurprisingly, now that it’s the PPP’s turn to run this country, and oversee its oil wealth, it has a problem on its hands in the presence of Dr. Adams, or anyone similar to him. Party leaders scrambled around to find a way to get him out into the pasture, and there he stands, but spontaneously and calmly. At all appearances, this seems to be in response to the orders of Exxon’s powers, which the party drew up under the banner of a ‘political appointee.’ After the temporary anesthetic of sending the man, this highly qualified and experienced Guyanese, on vacation, the thought was that Guyanese would forget and that time and distance would smooth out sounds over his departure. That succeeded partly and for a while. But now there’s hell to pay, because Vincent Adams, in the form of the proverbial Gadfly, stands like a bee and floats like a butterfly.
This bee and butterfly is also storming and almost daily. What this knowledgeable, and now irrevocable Guyanese petroleum expert is doing is taking media hystings and expressing oil wisdoms of an intense nature, and to an extent not seen or heard here, since the foggy establishment of our oil discoveries great. It has enlightened this nation on the dangers of gas flares. It has informed Guyanese viewers and listeners about heavy water discharges and the high potential for serious damage. And before we go any further, it should be noted that those who were damned and dismissed had been completely silent with any rebuttal, or counteracting PR and propaganda damage control. What the man has been saying in those, and many other areas, is that we have problems, and we are blowing ourselves into reality, by continually managing our oil wealth which is going to come back to smoke. us.
And more recently, Dr. Adams has recommended working around the dreadfully unfavorable Production Sharing Agreement (PSA) model, by putting emphasis and energy in other areas that offer more advantageous opportunities for Guyana to redress its oil finances and come out better front. . Now he has put before PPP leaders, who must lead the charge that the more worthy priority and focus must be on royalties and taxes. In doing so, it has bound the PPP, as it does not want to challenge Exxon. It has also highlighted Exxon that is going nowhere, and will be a mouthpiece in their sides and the government for some time to come. And finally, Dr. Adams requested that the Director of the EPA have a seat in the cabinet. That’s a double-edged one, because if the director is a party hack, then Guyana’s goose is cooked and sold in rich tasty chunks to the predatory oil companies.
As we reflect on what comes of this Guyanese, we are comforted that there are a few Guyanese, who will demand things as they see them with this oil of ours, and let the chips fall where they do. Clearly, this is upsetting PPP leaders and their Exxon partners. Whatever it is, Dr. Adams easing, but tightening the screws on government leaders, through shared daily oil wisdoms. They enlighten the population, and they harass politicians.