SO, What's Next?

SO. today we heard from our elected "leaders" and a handful of business individuals. Yes, there was quite a bit of heaving and pulling, each side giving "no quarter". Probing and testing. Parry and thrust, thrust and parry.

We heard the grandstanding. We heard the raucous bellowing. We "heard" the dumbfounded looks. We even heard can't tell you- it's proprietary. So what did we really hear? I 'd venture so state that I heard nothing, nothing of any substance that is.

Do any of our elected leaders even know how gallons there are to a barrel of petroleum? Were they asking these type of rudimentary questions fourteen years ago when they brokered the last deal?

Fear not, this isn't a political tongue lashing or vehicle by which to criticize- more so; it's a fact finding expedition-

What was the cumulative profit or loss for this concern over the past twelve years? How enriched or impoverished did the "partners" truly become? We should gauge our collective response on this for the most part. How much did one of the aforementioned partners profit by refining it's national product here upon our shores?

This is a business concern that people of this territory took to their collective bosom. For better or for worse, this business concern integrated itself into the very fabric of the community. Their economic plight (if it truly exists) is our economic plight.

There are many unanswered questions. For a beginning, I would like to see the price that WAPA has been paying for oil out in the open. I would like to know if the refinery was getting the oil from Venezuela at a discount? for openers. Is this truly a business transformation from production to storage, or is this just grooming for a successor?

We need to know that ANY light at the end of the tunnel is in fact rays of hope and not the proverbial headlights of an oncoming freight train (that freight train may well carry our economic collapse). We need answers.

Answers like: By Where and Whom will we be getting the Oil for WAPA (and at what published price- after all, this will be a public purchase by a government entity), where will we get our gasoline and diesel oil? How much will WAPA be charging us for Electricity? Where will our LPG come from (does anyone realize that we would have to convert all our appliances if we use LNG?) and how much?

No, today was not very enlightening; albeit just a bit puzzling and troubling. We need answers, not heaving, not pulling, not bellowing, and certainly not grandstanding.

If this is truly "the end of the road" then state so- but do the responsible thing- clean up, remediate and put it back to it's original condition- then leave. Don't stall. Don't procrastinate- part it out out piece by bloody piece and then return it to as close to it's original condition as possible- or else help us to find a viable successor....