Introduction
Last week’s column had raised an outside-the-box consideration, which is that Guyana’s best use of its coming petroleum benefits/revenues might well lie in their utilization as strategic spending on renewable energy. This was phrased as Decision Rule 4, following on the previous rules one to three presented earlier. As an extension of Decision Rule 4, I had also recommended that this rule should be operationalized through the creation of a dedicated Ministry of Renewable Energy.
As advanced, this recommendation has, to this point, rested on two foundations. The first is that nothing less than a dedicated ministry would be in a position to capture the high importance of this Decision rule. Further, nothing less than the stature of a government ministry would be capable of fulfilling the expectations that guide this proposal. Such a ministry could be counted on to be both in fierce competition and cooperation in the search for the best use of Guyana’s oil wealth.
The second foundation offered has been the sheer complexity of 1) the prevailing organisational structure that is responsible for renewable energy, and 2) the legislative framework under which these several bodies function. For readers’ convenience this complexity is captured in the two Schedules shown in the last week’s column.
