Establish national council on energy

FACED WITH the burdensome costs of increasing oil prices on the global market, the parliamentary Opposition is recommending the establishment of a national council on energy.

In a three-hour presentation to the 2011-2012 Budget Debate in Gordon House yesterday, Opposition Leader Portia Simpson Miller suggested that some key sectors should comprise the council.

The players recommended to sit on the council include Government, Opposition, petroleum dealers and marketing companies, power-generation companies, academia and consumers.

Simpson Miller wants the council to take charge of the implementation of Jamaica's energy policy.

The council's mandate, according to the opposition leader, should include the short-, medium- and long-term energy projections for energy security.

Another critical issue which Simpson Miller felt the council could address was the renegotiation of the licence governing the operation of the Jamaica Public Service.

"This demands bold and transformational leadership," she said.

She called on the administration to use its 20 per cent holding in the JPS as "leverage to protect the consumers".