Saith
denies State role in smelter approval
By Juhel Browne
Trinidad Express
Port
Spain
Petroleumworldtt.com
04 08 07
Energy Minister Dr Lenny Saith says the Alutrint smelter was not guaranteed
approval by the Environmental Management Authority (EMA) because it is 60 per
cent owned by the State.
"The people went through the process, did
their work. They took much longer than we thought," Saith
said in an interview.
Alutrint received its Certificate of Environmental
Clearance from the EMA on Monday, which opened
the door for construction to begin on its 125,000
metric tonne per year smelter.
Asked
about the perception that some may have about
the EMA's approval for the Alutrint project,
given its majority ownership by the State, Saith
said, "I think that is casting aspersions
against the personnel and the people at the EMA.
If that were the case why take two years to do
it? It could have been done on the first day."
Last week, in response to questions on the smelter
issue during a news conference, Saith said that
construction on the Alutrint smelter was expected
to begin in one month's time.
Saith said he gave the response based on the information
he had at the time.
"I don't tell them when to start. They will
decide exactly when they will start and all the
rest of it," he said.
Saith said the Government's position had always
been that any smelter proposal must be approved
by the relevant authorities, in particular, the
EMA, before any such project could begin.
"It was clearly spelt out, once the process
was completed, that they would make a decision.
I wasn't pre-judging whether they would approve
or not," he said.
Saith added there were people who were pre-judging
the outcome.
"You must separate emotion from a process
where you do analysis, do the studies and come
up with the answer," he said.
As for the now delayed Alcoa smelter proposal,
Saith said he agreed with that company's Trinidad
and Tobago director, Wade Hughes, that each project
has to be assessed on its own environmental merit.
Trinidad
Express
Friday, April 6th 2007
Copyright
©2007 Trinidad Express. All Rights Reserved.
.gif)