The People Must be Heard

“The…Proposed Fourth Amendment to the HOVENSA Concession Agreement Does Not Reflect the Wishes and Desires of the People…” 

Governor deJongh, his advisers, and the Legislature have not honestly solicited input from the People on an amendment that will impact everyone in the USVI for many years to come; therefore, they have no right to say that the government has finalized or will ratify any decisions at this point.   But, they have scheduled just one hearing for St. Croix at 1:00 pm on Monday, July 22, at the Fritz Lawaetz Complex Legislative Hall. Furthermore, the Legislature plans to vote on this critical amendment in just two weeks on August 7, 2013, basically robbing the People of any real opportunity to make their voices heard.  All concerned people of the USVI should attend the hearing on Monday and request more time for our communities to share what we the People desire to do about the future of HOVENSA and its relationship with our government. 

As the governor and HOVENSA and outside consultants have had more than 15 months to negotiate the 4^th Amendment--with no input from the People--we the People deserve an equal amount of time to do our Due Diligence so that we can request the Legislature to make an informed decision on our behalf.  If there is no compromise in the time, then the Legislature must check the executive branch as a balance of power and vote the 4^th Amendment down on August 7^th. 

At present HOVENSA and the government already have a contract that split and divided our social and political community in 1998.  Our government succumbed to their political and economic power and gave them what they wanted, but that agreement did obligate HOVENSA to fulfill their promises and responsibilities.  A contract is to protect both parties, but if the People are now going to be held hostage to a new contract without respecting and holding HOVENSA to their obligations under the third concession, then it is obvious that it is HOVENSA, its partners, the governor, and the legislature under duress, who are running these islands and not the People and the government representing the will of the People, as it should be. 

HOVENSA does not desire to sell the refinery but wants to operate the site as a storage facility only; at the same time it seems that Hess Oil itself would like to get out of the refinery business altogether.  If this is the case, rather than forcing them to sell the refinery, our government should have them clean up the site and should negotiate with them to reach an agreement that will be of mutual benefit to all parties, particularly the People, the land, and the future of the Virgin Islands.  

Right now, we the People must decide how we can utilize this opportunity to make a major socio-political-economical change for our future, and we need for all the concerned people of the Virgin Islands to participate in this process. Our immediate concerns and issues that need to be resolved are: affordable power and water and renewable energy, affordable and healthy organic food, clean air, affordable land and home ownership, quality education, economic diversification, employment and business training and job opportunities. 

We the People can use this issue of the 4^th Amendment to the HOVENSA Concession Agreement as an opportunity to address some of these issues, for in reality what we have before us is two of the world's largest fossil fuel and petroleum industries that are breaching their contractual obligations to the People of the Virgin Islands.  We the people must utilize this window of opportunity wisely.

We need Green and not Greed.

Click here to read the proposed 4th Amendment to the HOVENSA Concession Agreement.