Building consciousness, even in a lime...

From last weekend's Caution fete, hosted by Island People. Photo courtesy triniscene.com

Catholic Commission for Social Justice Press Release on the Smelter issue

Trinidad and Tobago has been endowed with a wealth of natural resources, a gift from God that has been entrusted to us, to be managed responsibly and used wisely, for the benefit of all, present as well as future generations.

In this connection the Catholic Commission for Social Justice wishes to refer at the outset to the following statement which forms part of the Social Doctrine of the Catholic Church:
“The Magisterium has repeatedly emphasized that the Catholic Church is in no way opposed to progress, rather she considers ‘science and technology are a wonderful product of a God-given creativity since they have provided us with wonderful possibilities, and we all gratefully benefit from them.’ ”
(Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, #457)

However the Social Doctrine of the Church also affirms that:
“Solutions to the ecological problem require that economic activity respect the environment to a greater degree, reconciling the needs of economic development with those of environmental protection. Every economic activity making use of natural resources must also be concerned with safeguarding the environment…. An economy respectful of the environment will not have the maximizing of profits as its only objective, because environmental protection cannot be assured solely on the basis of financial calculations of costs and benefits. The environment is one of those goods that cannot be adequately safeguarded or promoted by market forces.”
(Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, #470)
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Responsible management requires that decisions be taken on the basis of an informed and balanced examination of anticipated benefits and risks.

The proposal to construct two aluminum smelters in La Brea and in the south west peninsula of Trinidad and Tobago is based on a range of possible benefits which include the following:
- Income and revenue generation through the exploitation of an abundant supply of natural gas;
- Employment creation;
- The establishment of downstream industries providing additional income and employment;
- Benefits to surrounding communities.

However serious concerns have also been raised relating to and including:
- The displacement and dislocation of residents of the area, with the Union Village relocation still pending since 2004;
- Dangers to human health and safety and to the environment through harmful emissions and the generation of hazardous wastes;
- Occupational health and safety hazards;
- Loss of bio-diversity, including species of plants and animals unique to the designated area.

There is unquestionable value likely to accrue from the exploitation of Trinidad and Tobago’s natural gas resources as a means of income generation and employment creation for the common good. However attention also needs to be paid to the hidden costs of obtaining these benefits, the cost, for instance, of the accelerated depletion of a non-renewable natural resource, as well as the cost of concessionary gas pricing when calculated as possible revenue forgone. More information is needed on all aspects of this equation.

In order to arrive at a proper assessment of likely benefits, it is important to obtain information on approximate numbers of temporary as well as permanent jobs to be created through the construction and operation of the proposed smelters and associated downstream industries.

Similar concrete information and commitments should also be provided to substantiate the claim that the proposed industrialization of the south western region will bring material benefits and improvements to the communities who reside in the area.

The basic question needs to be asked – will the proposed development of the area improve the lives of the people of the area? We have heard the cries of pain and injury coming from the residents. The people of the area have a right to be heard. They have a right to be consulted and informed. If their lives and livelihoods are threatened their concerns must be heeded. They have a right to be treated with dignity, with fairness and with justice. The residents of Union Village have a right to a just relocation, with choices
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of decent housing offered in an environment conducive to vegetable gardens and farming, in which they were previously engaged. They also have a right to restitution and reparation for the losses they have been forced to incur.

There is significant evidence of very serious threats of pollution of the air, water and soil of the surrounding environment, as well as adverse health impacts for the workers and inhabitants of the area, as a consequence of the operation of the proposed smelters. Given the health risks that are involved, including recent information concerning the risk of multiple chemical sensitivity syndrome, there is a clear and urgent need for a full health impact assessment of this major new industrial development that is planned for the country.

No definite answers have been forthcoming in relation to the disposal of the hazardous and toxic wastes that will result from the operation of the smelters. It must be emphasized that there are no dedicated hazardous waste disposal sites in Trinidad and Tobago and the Catholic Commission for Social Justice is not aware of plans to develop any such sites here. Transfer of hazardous wastes from Trinidad for disposal elsewhere is also likely to be prohibited by the Basel Convention, to which Trinidad and Tobago is a signatory.

Here it must be added that industry self regulation will not guarantee safety and health. What Trinidad and Tobago needs is the necessary legislative and regulatory framework that will provide for the health and safety of both workers and the broader community, as well as the protection of the environment. Such a framework must include provisions for empowered, expert independent external monitoring to check compliance and ensure enforcement. Pope John Paul II, in his message for the 1990 World Day of Peace stated as follows:
“The State should actively endeavour within its own territory to prevent destruction of the atmosphere and biosphere, by careful monitoring…and ensuring that its citizens are not exposed to dangerous pollutants or toxic wastes.”

The proposal to construct two aluminum smelters in the south west of Trinidad and Tobago raises serious concerns relating to human health and safety and the safeguarding of our environment. These concerns go to the heart of our basic system of values. Trinidad and Tobago deserves to have these concerns and questions properly addressed and resolved as part of the national decision making process.

In an address to participants in a convention on ‘The Environment and Health’ in March 1997, Pope John Paul II said:
“The modern era has witnessed man’s growing capacity for transformative intervention. The aspect of the conquest and exploitation of resources has become predominant and invasive, and today it has even reached the point of threatening the environment’s hospitable aspect: the environment as ‘resource’ risks threatening the environment as ‘home’. Because of the powerful means of
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transformation offered by technological civilization, it sometimes seems that the balance between man and the environment has reached a critical point.”

At this critical juncture, in the light of the many unresolved issues requiring further investigation and decision making in the context of the greater good, the Catholic Commission for Social Justice cannot at this time support the present plans for the construction of two aluminum smelters in La Brea and the south west peninsula of Trinidad and Tobago.

In closing the Commission wishes to cite the following from the Social Doctrine of the Church:
“Serious ecological problems call for an effective change of mentality leading to the adoption of new lifestyles, in which the quest for truth, beauty, goodness and communion with others for the sake of the common good are the factors that determine consumer choices, savings and investments…..There is a need to break with the logic of mere consumption and promote forms of agriculture and industrial production that respect the order of creation and satisfy the basic human needs of all.”
(Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, #486)

No means no

"Those who profess to favor freedom, yet deprecate agitation, are men who want
crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and
lightening. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. This
struggle may be a moral one; or it may be a physical one; or it may be both moral
and physical; but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a
demand. It never did and it never will."
-- Frederick Douglass, African-American abolitionist

Alcoa: No Drilling Yet

Sunday Guardian
July 16, 2006

Letter to the Editor


I noted with interest several Alcoa-related articles that appeared in your newspaper on July 9. While much of the reporting was fair and accurate, I’d like to take this opportunity to clear up a few key details.
Specifically, the article entitled Cap-de-Ville will not be cleared for industry wove together a series of quotes from Randy Overbey, Alcoa’s president of Primary Metals Development.
Because the quotes were taken out of context, the story created a false impression of the current activities related to our proposed smelter project at Cap-de-Ville.
Specifically, the exploratory field drilling exercise has not begun.
What has begun is the community consultation associated with that drilling.
Further, I can assure you that we fully understand and accept that no land preparation or construction can proceed without the necessary approvals from the Environmental Management Authority (EMA), according to the laws of Trinidad and Tobago. We have always been, and remain, committed to a comprehensive and public Environmental Impact Assessment. This will proceed in due course.
We remain available and willing to discuss this proposed project in detail with your correspondents or editorial staff.

Wade Hughes
Director, Public Strategy
Global Primary Products Growth,
Alcoa

Editor’s Note:

The following was transcribed from a taped version of Mr Overbey’s address to members of the American Chamber of Commerce:
“We are proceeding with the project. I know there has been a lot of noise in the media but we are proceeding with the project. We are proceeding with detailed engineering as you can tell around the layout of the plant.
“We [are] proceeding with scoping, we are proceeding with estimating. We have filed for our certificate of clearance from the EMA as well as [are] doing work on power plant development.
“We are spending quite a lot of Alcoa’s money as we do that.
“We did sign an agreement in principle with the Government in February.
“I hope that Government views this as a very important document, which we both must take very seriously.
“We don’t look at an agreement in principle as something we might do some day but we view it as framework for the agreement that we will go forward with.
“We have filed our Certificate of Clearance from the EMA and we are working with them. They have questions they wanted answered and we have answered it for them.
“The first activity is test boring. This is not the beginning of clearing the site. We are not going to using bulldozers for this drilling. From day one we are going to protect what is there as much as we possibly can. So if any of you see a bulldozer on the site in next few months while doing the test drilling, you can call me.”

Beware of the natives

by Attillah Springer
Trinidad Guardian
July 15, 2006



"We must bear in mind that imperialism is a world system—the last stage of capitalism—and it must be defeated in a world confrontation. The strategic end of this struggle should be the destruction of imperialism. Our share, the responsibility of the exploited and underdeveloped of the world, is to eliminate the foundations of imperialism: our oppressed nations, from where they extract capital, raw materials, technicians, and cheap labour, and to which they export new capital-instruments of domination-arms and all kinds of articles, thus submerging us in an absolute dependence."
Ernesto Che Guevara

Maybe I’m just a semiliterate native and all but I found the ostensibly mild-mannered Randall Overbey’s comments directed at Father Patrick rather threatening.
Granted, Father Patrick and Uncle Bas need to take the blame for exposing us to this most offensive and destructive kind of designer imperialism, but surely the more enlightened and allegedly compassionate multinational conquistadors should know better.In a meeting hosted by the American Chamber of Commerce, Mr Overbey, the Alcoa jefe, on July 7 said his project is going ahead, regardless.
His words, as quoted in the newspapers, jumped out at me because they had such a passive aggressive ring to them.
I’d really like to know the colour of Mr Overbey’s passport. And then I want to know if I could go to Texas and talk like I own it. If any of our own leaders or company executives could ever put God out of their thoughts to send thinly veiled threats to the dotish and patently impeachable Dubya.
As if because Alcoa has turned up on our shores with their trinkets we will lie down and give away all that we have and all that we are.
I hearing figures being pelt about. A few million here and a few million there. As if the people of Chatham who they say they will employ will ever see even the minutest decimal point of the millions they say the country stands to get.
But more and more people in T&T are realising and understanding that having a lot of money isn’t really doing anything for the state of the nation. More money just means more for state bureaucracy and bad planning to misappropriate. Bob sang, in the abundance of water, the fool is thirsty and a truer thing has never been said about the state of this here sweet T&T.
More to waste on concretisation while firemen in Belmont labour in the stench of an overflowing hospital morgue. More money to skyrocket inflation. More money to not spend on strengthening the lot of farmers. More money to denude our hills but don’t bother about dredging the silt-filled rivers.
What really pisses me off about these multinational, modern-day conquistadors is how absolutely contemptuous they still are of the natives.
Like we the dim-witted ones don’t understand the workings of the global capitalist economy.
I want these multinational conquistadors to know that contrary to the standards set by our esteemed politicians, Trinidadians/Tobagonians are not as stupid as you think.
While some of us will be dazzled by trinkets and think that our patrimony is disposable, others see through your glass beads.
Others are not impressed by concrete.
Others prefer green plants to smelter plants.
Others are willing, where the politicians have apparently lost their tongues, to get up and shout no in your ears.
In this season of emancipation, I try to rationalise this Randall Overbey character and I get the feeling that he has fully internalised his oppressor role.
And I guess I feel kind of sorry for him because, poor fellar, he is as caught up in this Babylon system as much as the rest of us. He can’t help but play the part of contemptuous overseer. He can’t help but crack his whip over Father Patrick’s back.
And for real, truth is like a monster in the eyes of the wicked and so he is bound to interpret concerns about aluminium smelters in T&T as “noise in the media.”
But the story of emancipation is not just one of the slave masters and slaves. And somewhere in my genetic memory, my ancestors are screaming out for justice. The story of my Black Carib blood is throw yourself from that there cliff rather than become a slave. And I can show you the names of all my Grenadian ancestors who were hanged for being part of Fedon’s rebellion.
I claim it now. That I come from a long line of resistance. The noises in my blood are noises of pure and simple defiance. Of ignorant semiliterate natives who were farse and out of place enough to question the trinkets. And to say that it was unacceptable. And to fight for their freedom. To give their lives for it. To foment a thought that still echoes across centuries that says that another way is possible and that we don’t always have to bend over and take the licks.
I want to warn these multinational conquistadors to read and learn from history, if they are so interested in investing in this land.
Because sometimes the natives strangled the invaders with their glass beads.

Parliament takes back seat to party

Letter to the Editor
Trinidad Guardian
July 15, 2006

It is impossible for the irony to go unnoticed by Senator Mary King. Or indeed by the chair of the various committees of Parliament charged with protecting the public interest. We must make certain, however, that the general public does not miss the irony.

Earlier this year, super-technocrats Ken Julien and Prakash Saith were invited to appear before the joint select committee of Parliament, chaired by King, in order that the committee, and by extension the public, may gain a clearer understanding of the issues surrounding the troubling intention of the Government to establish two aluminium smelter plants in the country. Both men did not attend. And, as a result, Parliament and the people remain in the dark with respect to critical questions concerning these smelters.

Now here is the rub. At a recently held $500 breakfast forum put on by the Prime Minister’s constituency, and attended by both men, the Prime Minister continued to berate those in Opposition to the smelter projects as being misinformed. This notwithstanding the fact that I, among many others, am on public record challenging the Prime Minister to publicly answer certain questions regarding the smelter deals. So far, he has remained silent.

Now, these men did not merely attend this function. Media reports indicate that both Julien and Saith made powerpoint presentations at the function. In order words, in the minds of these men, accounting to the ruling party constituency apparatus is given higher priority than accounting to Parliament. Those attending the party’s function received information, albeit controlled, while the parliamentary committee received excuses.

The message therefore is quite clear. And we must make no mistake in its interpretation, which is: in the conduct of governmental affairs, both the party and the Cabinet are paramount to the Parliament. If the obverse of this were true, then the PM along with Julien and Saith would have no choice but to account to the Parliament and people for their actions. Sadly, this is not the case.

King and her colleagues therefore have much work to do in order to reverse this trend which only serves to diminish the authority of Parliament.

In so doing, the parliamentary oversight committees must not only continue to probe the smelter deals but also the purchases of blimps for national security, expenditures of UTT, issues concerning expenditure and occupation of the Red House, the as yet unfulfilled commitment to establish a replacement for the National Broadcasting Network, and so many other critical issues crying out for decisive intervention by Parliament.

If Parliament fails, so too will our democracy. Where Parliament is weak, dictatorship is certain to emerge. Where do you stand?

Lincoln Myers

Gran Couva

Thought for today

The workers of iniquity
Dig a pit for me
Now they waiting for me to fall in
Trying to take mih bread an butter
with lies and propaganda
But they foolin
They only foolin

I shall not be afraid of what man can do to me
Man you see is only vanity

Who God Bless no man curse
He shall never hunger or thirst
Who God Bless no man shall ever curse
He shall be first

Who God Bless, Ras Shorty I

Response to Randall Overbey

P. O. Box 128,
San Fernando,

10 July, 2006

The Editor-in-chief
Trinidad Guardian,
22-24 St. Vincent Street,
Port of Spain

Dear Sir,
In the article on the proposed Alcoa smelter in your issue of 8 July, 2006, you report Randall Overby as saying “I know that there has been a lot of noise in the media, but we are proceeding with the smelter” Either subconsciously or more probably, very deliberately, he describes the voice and the legitimate protests of the people of Trinidad and Tobago against the smelter as noise. This shows very clearly what he thinks of the people of Trinidad and Tobago.
For the benefit of Overby and those of us who may have forgotten, please let me recall the following facts.
1.In the last General Elections held in Trinidad and Tobago on 7 October, 2002, the total number of votes for P.N.M. candidates represented just over 35 % of the electorate while the total number of votes for other parties represented 34 % of the electorate.
The present P.N.M. Government does NOT represent a majority of the people of Trinidad and Tobago and the voice of the present P.N.M. Government is NOT the voice of the people of Trinidad and Tobago.
2. Also, in the last General Election, the P.N.M. candidate for the Electoral District of Point Fortin was elected on the votes of 46 % of that electorate. But in the polling divisions of the South-West Peninsular - Chatham, Coromandel, Granville, Bonasse, Fullerton and Icacos, he received 18.6 % of the votes of the electorate while the other candidate received 61.2% of the votes of the electorate.
The present P.N.M. Member of Parliament for Point Fortin does not represent a majority of the people of the Point Fortin constituency and even though he is supposed to represent the people of the South-West Peninsular, less than 19% of the electorate there voted for him. The voice of the MP for Point Fortin is NOT the voice of the people of Point Fortin and most decidedly it is NOT the voice of the People of the South-West Peninsular.
3. According to a UWI / ANSA McAl nationwide poll, a clear majority of 66 % of the population do not support the setting up of an aluminium smelter in Chatham.
Further, the vast majority of the People of the South-West Peninsular do not want a smelter in the Peninsular. For their own good, they have expressed this in a clear and unequivocal voice.
May I suggest that Overby consider long and carefully the two sayings :
SALUS POPULI SUPREMA EST LEX - THE GOOD OF THE PEOPLE IS THE HIGHEST LAW
VOX POPULI VOX DEI - THE VOICE OF THE PEOPLE IS THE VOICE OF GOD
Overby is reported as going on to say “We are not going to be using bulldozers for this drilling” Obviously he has bulldozers on his mind and is planning to use them later.
If Overby thinks he can bulldoze his way against the Good and against the Voice of the poor and polite people of the South-West Peninsular, he should stop and think again and listen to their Voice.
There is a local saying to the effect that those who do not listen will learn the hard way or that those who do not hear will feel.
The People of the South-West Peninsular may be poor and polite and Overby may think that he is rich and powerful and can buy his way. Let us hope that he does not have to learn the hard way that the poor and polite People of the South-West Peninsular are not powerless.
Yours truly,

J. Chin Aleong
for The Friends of the People of the South - West Peninsular

Villagers’ tempers flare at Chatham soil test probe

By Shaliza Hassanali
Sunday Guardian
July 09, 2006

A geotechnical investigation, to be conducted by Trintoplan Consultants Ltd for Alcoa’s proposed aluminium smelter plant at Cap-de-Ville/Chatham, caused tempers to flare among residents of the south-western peninsula on Wednesday night.
During a meeting at Chatham Community Centre, hosted by Trintoplan field operations manager, Hugh Nurse, and project manager, Adesh Surujnath, the villagers accused Alcoa of trying to pull wool over their eyes, in order to conduct their geotechnical (soil) test.
Trintoplan was sub-contracted by Fugrow Geo Sciences Ltd, a firm based at Houston, Texas, USA, to conduct part of a feasibility study for the establishment of a 341,000- metric-tonne-per-year aluminium smelter at Cap de Ville/Chatham.
The study involves the setting-up of 103 (eight inches in diameter and 30 meters in depth) bore holes throughout the site.
The test will provide information on the sub-surface characteristics of the proposed site.
Drilling of the bore holes is set to begin on July 17, and will conclude on September 11.
Work will be carried out seven days each week for ten to 12 hours every day.
Some of the environmental effects from the drilling are cutting of vegetation and trees and noise generated from drill rigs.
Drilling map
In a pamphlet signed by Alcoa’s director of public strategy, Wade Hughes, it was stated that Alcoa had been officially advised by the Environmental Management Authority (EMA) that the field drilling exercise did not fall within the lists of designated activities set out in the schedule of the Certificate of Environmental Clearance (CEC) Order, 2001.
As such, Hughes explained that a CEC was not required for the drilling exercise.
The total area to be cleared at the site was estimated not to exceed 8.4 acres.
“Additionally, the National Energy Corporation (NEC) has authorised Alcoa access to the site to carry out the proposed activity,” Hughes said.
However, what started off as a peaceful community meeting degenerated into a shouting match among villagers on hearing that NEC authorised access to the site.
At one point, tempers flared between villagers Valentine Charles and president of the Chatham/ Cap-de-Ville Environmental Protection Agency, Fitzroy Beache, who shared different views about their behaviour.
Beache said the people of the community were within their rights to demand answers about the smelter plant, but Charles disagreed.
He said people ought to behave in a civil and decent manner.
The two men eventually took their argument outside, with half of the meeting trailing behind to take in the war of words.
Retired nurse Yvonne Ashby tried to quell the heated argument by reasoning with the fuming men.
“Is Alcoa you have to fight. We must approach this in a level- headed way,” Ashby shouted, as Charles and Beach came to near blows.
The men later cooled down and the meeting resumed, with residents asking why Trintoplan came at the 11th hour to consult with the community.
“Why no drilling map was presented to us ? Who gave NEC authorisation to enter our lands?” they asked, putting Surujnath under fire.
Surujnath tried to explain that a preliminary map was drawn up and a final one will be presented to the villagers shortly.
“I don’t have answers for the other questions. I was hired to do a job,” Surujnath defended.
“Before you drill, we want to see a map. We want to know exactly where you going to bore these holes,” one Cedros villager shouted.

Noise levels
Angered by the turn of events, Ashby asked Surujnath if Alcoa had any right to enter lands in T&T, “and if so, who gave them permission?
“Do they (Alcoa) have a right to enter heritage lands at Bourg Congo, which were given to freed slaves?
“The people are owners of the lands,” she argued.
Ashby also suggested compensation for every Chatham/Cap-de-Ville villager who would be affected by noise levels from the drilling equipment.
Surujnath stressed that the noise level was estimated to range from 88 to 92 decibels, and plans had been developed to minimise the potential environmental impacts.
“Noise generated from drill rigs and water pumps is not expected to affect residents, given the low population density of the work site,” Surujnath explained.
But Ashby begged to differ, saying the villagers would be exposed to high levels of noise from the equipment used, and they should be compensated for their discomfort.
“Every villager should be given a cheque in their hand by Alcoa at the end of this exercise.”
Chatham beekeeper Chunilal Roopnarine also called for an urgent meeting with NEC.
“We want them to bring all relevant documents so we can see if they have legal rights to access our land for the proposed smelter plant,” Roopnarine said.
“Will the residents of Chatham/ Cap-de-Ville find out the results of the geotechnical investigation?” Beache asked Surujnath.
“I don’t have the authority to disclose that information,” Surujnath replied.
The villagers left the meeting saying they wanted to see the drilling map first, before any soil-testing in their community.
Trintoplan agreed to meet their demands.

Cap de Ville Not cleared for Industry

By Curtis Williams
Sunday Guardian
July 08, 2006

Cap-De-Ville in Point Fortin has not been approved as an industrial site by Town and Country Planning, and the National Energy Corporation has no permission to use the land for industrial purposes.
This is the word from acting head of the Town and Country Planning Division, Sheryl-Anne Haynes, who said categorically that the division had given no approval for land in Chatham to be used for industrial purposes.
“For any piece of land to be used for anything, the Town and Country Planning Division must make a determination of the land use.
“I can say that at this stage the lands at Chatham have not been approved for industrial purposes,” she said in an interview.
Haynes said NEC had submitted an application for the land use to change, but that T&C Planning was unhappy with the application and had sent it back.
“We have seen an application from the NEC for the land to be used for industrial purposes, but we found there were certain questions, which remain outstanding, and in those circumstances we have sent the application back.”
She said it was important that Town and Country approved projects before they began, because the division must establish the necessary buffer zones.
Haynes’ comments come on the heels of news by Alcoa’s president Randal Overbey, on Friday, that the company would move full speed ahead with plans to build a US $1.5 billion aluminium smelter.
Overbey told members of the American Chamber of Industry and Commerce, during its monthly meeting, that Alcoa was proceeding with the smelter project, despite objections by various groups.
“We are proceeding with the project. I know there has been a lot of noise in the media, but we are proceeding with the project.
“We are proceeding with detailed engineering, as you can tell, around the layout of the plant.
“We are proceeding with scooping and estimating.
“We have filed for our certificate of clearance from the EMA, as well as doing work on power plant development.
“We are spending quite a lot of Alcoa’s money as we do that. The first activity is test-boring.
“This is not the beginning of clearing the site. We are not going to be using bulldozers for this drilling.
“From day one, we are going to protect what is there as much as we possibly can.”
Overbey signalled that he expected the Government to stick to the memorandum of understanding signed with Alcoa.
“We did sign an agreement in principle with the Government in February.
“I hope that the Government views this as a very important document, which we both must take very seriously.
“We don’t look at an agreement in principle as something we might do someday, but we view it as a framework for the agreement that we will go forward.
“We have filed for our certificate of clearance from the EMA, and we are working with them.
“They have questions they wanted answered and we have answered it for them.”
Meanwhile, Planning and Development Minister Camille Robinson-Regis, under whose portfolio the Town and Country Planning Division falls, said she expected Alcoa to abide by the rules.
“You have to have specific approval in order for the work to proceed on the site, and also EMA approval.
“So that is being examined, and there can be no construction until these approvals have been obtained.
“Certainly the Government insists that these agencies go through the process, and after they have done that, then they can proceed.”


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