Historic: Senate Approves Arclight Deal

Also agree that the Senators came off as uneducated or - even worse - unprepared. They embarrass me at times. Militant-Young appears to have a passion for tourism. Starting a business would be a more productive use of her time. Novelle is simply in over his head. Same is true for Blyden, Kenny G, etc.

What do you think would happen if you run for a senate seat, monogram? Have you considered it? Bashing the senators is the easiest thing to do. I firmly believe that the people deserve the public officials that they vote for. If you manage to change the minds of the voters, that would be an accomplishment. Step in, I'd love to see you run.

They admitted they needed another outside professional opinion, and I heard something about some file somebody was supposed to get was corrupted so the senate didn't have all the analysis? From my understanding JMY wanted to postpone until further analysis. She was voted down on that one, thank goodness.

Some of those subcontractors will likely need to have specific and extensive technical skills, as is often the case when using subcontractors. The subcontract work may very well be farmed out to other expert companies. Locals may not have those skills and training locals or anyone for short term temporary work usually doesn't make sense. At the risk of over-complicating things, putting constraints on using locals for contractors would likely need to have an out in case the local skills are not available, similar to the H1B visa program. And we know how well that works.

...they needed another outside professional opinion, and I heard something about some file somebody was supposed to get was corrupted so the senate didn't have all the analysis?....

I believe that what she was talking about was this: Both of the 'outside' analyses commissioned independently by the President were in the hands of the Senate before the final session and vote. The first was an extensive legal opinion from a major national lawfirm -- Saul Ewing. It is an old line Philly firm that is deeply into the energy industries. (Their firm history goes back to 1863.) The major point raised in the legal analysis was a confusion between the "operator" and the "owner" which was clarified in questioning. (The VI LLC is both the owner and operator.) The second was a financial analysis which, frankly, just repeated what everyone knows and was not as impressive....this deal did not create as many jobs and nobody can foresee the future.

Thus, they only thing they discussed not having before voting was the formal, written version of the report from their own legislative counsel which was glitched by a word-processing file -- although it must have been provided informally and if there was anything of import they would have known about it.

Finally, I have sympathy for complaints about the rush. However, in defense of the Government's litigation team, its deal team and the Legislature, there really was not a lot of time. The USVI could not set the schedule. After the highly nuanced suit against Hess (it had to get at Hess rather than HOVIC or Hovensa to avoid getting pulled out into federal court or stopped by the bankruptcy, and yet still allege a valid claim for $4.5 billion in damages against a parent corp. that was not actually a party to the past agreements) was filed, this turned into an epic struggle crammed into in a timetable that is being driven by the realities of 3 sets of complex, interrelated litigation, a bankruptcy court that moved quite fast to protect the assets from degrading past a point of usefulness, staggering tax claims by PDVSA/HOVENSA, a changing government in Venezuela, EPA requirements and a past that left all sides just a bit North of wary.

To be honest, this case is the legal equivalent of doing brain surgery while juggling on roller-skates -- while 20 different groups offer helpful suggestions.

Carl

(tu)

Today's Consortium:

Hovensa Deal Closes

"The government’s escrow agent received the cash payment of $220 million. The deeds to the real estate, land, housing, community center, and vocational school will be filed with the Office of the Recorder of Deeds on January 5, 2016."

Today's Source:

Done Deal

Done Deal: V.I. Closes Agreement with Limetree for Former Hovensa Facility

“Once again, I thank the members of my team, the 31st Legislature, ArcLight Capital Partners, LLC, and the community at large for their support in moving this important agreement forward,” [Gov. Mapp] said in announcing the closing of the deal.

Looking forward to getting back to work!

Looking forward to getting back to work!

Not ready to retire, eh?

Looking forward to getting back to work!

Not ready to retire, eh?

I thought I was. I'm really not loving it.

Looking forward to getting back to work!

Not ready to retire, eh?

I thought I was. I'm really not loving it.

I was feeling the same way.

(tu)

Looking forward to getting back to work!

Not ready to retire, eh?

I thought I was. I'm really not loving it.

I was feeling the same way.