Let’s start with Governor Fitial. His statement that CUC was fixed is a complete misrepresentation of the truth. CUC is a long way from being fixed. What they have done so far is put a cheap band-aid over a wound that required surgery. But let’s take it one point at a time. If CUC is fixed why has he not lifted the state of emergency? Why do they keep having island wide power outages? Second, his statement that when he stepped in the engines were only burning 23 percent of the fuel fed to them. That is a complete impossibility. I think he meant to say that they were only 23 percent efficient. Either way he is wrong or I would like to have him explain what he was really trying to say. When he got into talking about megawatts of generation versus watts of load he got completely twisted up and had to drop the subject. Not a very impressive presentation.
Mr. Borja stuck to the facts he could back up. He quoted the price of heavy fuel versus the price of diesel fuel and why we need to change back to heavy fuel.
Mr. Hofschneider complained about the cost of running CUC and why we should privatize it. He hinted at it but would not come out and say it. The biggest problem with CUC is too much government interference. He should know as he has been a part of it. They insist on putting their political appointees in positions of authority who do not have a clue as to what they are supposed to do. Yes, CUC should be privatized, but not the way they want to do it. I will cover that at the end of this letter.
Mr. Juan Guerrero talked about the engines being worn out and that we should build a fuel farm and buys the fuel on yearly basis. Where was he when a representative from GPA came over here and offered that if we would switch back to heavy fuel they would let us combine our orders with them and thus get a much lower price on the fuel? They went on to offer us the use of one of their tanks to store fuel in. He figured that we could save about $50 million a year on the cost of fuel. I have not bounced the numbers myself. But I do know that we could save a lot of money each year. Then he went on to talk about how all the engines are old and worn out and should be junked. Here I take a strong exception to his idea. I want to make it very clear. INDUSTRIAL ENGINES DO NOT WEAR OUT. If the preventive maintenance and the overhauls are done when they are supposed to be done, those engines would still be running when all of us are dead and buried. If you do not believe me I ask that you go up to the Puerto Rico power plant which has a superior engine that is running just fine. That engine is probably older than I am which by the way is 70 years.
Now let’s talk about privatization of CUC. I have been talking of a plan for some time now. We need to have residents of the CNMI for a Co-Op and buy the power plant and the distribution system. The shareholders in the Co-Op vote on who is going to be the executive director and the board of directors. If they do not do the job right we fire them and put someone else in charge. The thing is that the residents of the CNMI will own it. When it starts making money (and it will make money) we will get paid dividend on our shares. The good thing is the money will stay here and not go off-island with some foreign investor.
No matter how you feel about what I have had to say, I want you to remember one thing — who ever controls our infrastructure, controls the island. Think about that! Do you want some foreign company to control your island?
One last thought. I find it very touching that Mr. Hofschneider is so concerned about the EPA. Where was he when CUC brought in the rented generators that did not meet the U.S. EPA standards?
FREDERICK PROSSER
As Matuis, Saipan
