It is no secret that the price of oil has been escalating for many years, leaving non-oil-producing countries like Jamaica with an ever-increasing yearly fuel bill. The causative effects of higher energy costs we are all too familiar with: higher gas, electricity, and eventually food costs, which erode our standard of living and the country's ability to spend more on other vital sectors of the economy.

Therefore, the launch on Monday by the government through its energy minister Phillip Paulwell of a pilot project using ethanol in 70 of the state's motor vehicles is highly commendable and one which we hope will be successful, eventually leading to full compliance by motorists as the country seeks a viable alternative to the buying of crude oil.

However, while commending the government and the relevant minister for this particular initiative, we cannot help but wonder why it took successive PNP- and JLP-led administrations so long to seek an alternative source of energy which, according to the experts at Petrojam, has the potential of saving the country close to US$40 million annually.

All the antecedents are there. The world's first major oil crisis of the early 1970s and the ever present political instability of the Middle East, Nigeria, and Indonesia - the major oil-producing areas of the world - should have been the catalyst for our leaders to actively seek and to eventually develop a viable alternative to the use of crude oil. We have toyed with solar, wind and hydro alternatives in the past, but never has there been a sustained and prolonged effort to solve this problem.

Ethanol, which is an alcohol-based alternative fuel produced by fermenting and distilling starch crops, we are reliably informed, was first produced in Jamaica in the 1950s. It also has the added advantage of being very environmentally friendly, a major failure of traditional fossil fuels.

The use of ethanol, according to the experts, should benefit the sugar industry, as sugar cane is one of the feedstocks for its manufacture. This is indeed excellent news for the already battered and bruised sugar industry, still one of the major employers of skilled and unskilled workers in the country.

We have watched the slow and seemingly deliberate demise of 'king sugar' over the last five years in particular. Now that preferential trade agreements are outdated for sugar, it is hoped that the production of ethanol might provide the much-needed shot-in-the-arm for this beleaguered industry. It may not be a 'sweet' alternative, but it just might be a financially viable one, which will ease pain and prevent social turmoil.

We hope that in putting this ethanol project together, the government will consult with all the players, including those in sugar, to work out the best possible arrangements for the benefit of all.

Again, we commend the ethanol pilot project by Mr Paulwell and we look forward to its successful implementation.

Good luck!

Trousers in Denim

Cream of the 'Crop'

Cheeky's World