World oil prices are currently falling and everybody is happy. With oil selling for just over US$64 a barrel, its lowest price in 12 years, people are beginning to feel the benefits at the gas pumps across the country.

This is not unique to Jamaica. In the United States, petrol is about to fall to under US$3 a gallon. That's good news.

It's even better news that some experts believe these current prices could remain in place for at least another five years as some are saying the reason for the fall in oil prices globally is due mainly to a decrease in demand from China, whose economic growth is beginning to cool after a decade of rapid growth. That, and the fact that the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has refused to cut production even as the United States ramps up its own production.

It's almost a perfect storm but it won't last forever, and Jamaica needs to find a way to keep its energy costs down. If not, we are not going to be able to be competitive in anything we export because it's just too expensive to make anything here. That means no new jobs and a constantly stagnant economy and God knows, I am tired of trying to keep my head above water.

fossil fuels

That's why it really rankles me to know that the Cayman Islands and St Kitts are in the process of building solar farms, while we are here wondering how to proceed with a 360 mw power plant that we believe will reduce our energy costs by about 40 per cent.

Instead of waiting for this to happen, there are so many other things we could be doing to reduce our dependency on fossil fuels. We have sun all year round. Instead of wasting money on Outameni, why not institute policy to make it mandatory that houses built by the NHT must have solar panels installed to provide at least 50 per cent of that demand? Why don't we install solar panels on Government buildings so as to reduce energy costs?

clean energy

Why not provide tax breaks for companies if they install solar panels on their offices. Any excess power could be sold back to the Jamaica Public Service who can then sell it to their customers cheaply. After a few years, perhaps the next five, JPS would be buying a lot of cheap, clean energy from their customers and pass it on to manufacturers who would then benefit from cheaper energy costs.

It is not every time that we have to wait for someone to do something revolutionary before we choose to follow. We can be leaders in this field in the Caribbean. Right across the world, people are trying to break the dependency on expensive fossil fuel that only gets cheaper when these 'perfect storms' on a global scale occur.

If the analysts are right and oil could be at US$60 a barrel for the next five years, why don't we work to make it so that if the oil prices begin to surge after that time we can face the future without trepidation of high electricity bills and manufacturing costs.

It's not rocket science and there is no need to reinvent the wheel. We just need some leadership and sound forward thinking. Is that so hard?

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