Protest at CUC power plant today

Activists outraged over the Commonwealth Utilities Corp.’s most recent electricity rate hike and a host of troubles connected to the embattled agency’s management are preparing for a rally today outside the power plant at Lower Base.

“People are saying now that enough is enough,” said Irene Tantiado, president of the Coalition of United Workers, a local labor group that has largely organized the rally through text messaging. “Everybody is invited to attend. This is an issue that involves everyone.”

In addition to labor activists, the local community group Tao Tao Tano is gearing up for the rally, slated for 5:30pm. Tao Tao Tano president Gregorio Cruz welcomed the event, saying CUC’s problems are “something we can all unite on.”

The rally comes as local watchdogs are questioning a multimillion-dollar deal for emergency power CUC inked last month with Aggreko International. CUC’s former director in a statement last week, for example, said key provisions in the contract could lead to added costs for the Commonwealth.

Telesource, the company tasked with operating Tinian’s power plant, has also previously criticized the deal, saying it could have provided the same services for roughly half the price of the new contract.

Meanwhile, the organizer who spearheaded a major rally calling for reform at CUC last month, MP Magazine publisher Ed Propst, is raising fresh questions about the utility’s status as an arm of the government.

At issue, Propst said in an interview Tuesday, is a 2006 opinion penned by CNMI Attorney General Matthew Gregory on the status of loans given to CUC from the Northern Marianas Retirement Fund, a pension fund for government employees. In the opinion, Gregory writes that CUC is “not an agency or instrumentality of the CNMI government” and that, consequently, it may use loans from the fund for operating expenses, a move prohibited for other government offices. The loans also would not be subject to legislative approval, the opinion says.

The opinion is “insulting,” Propst said, adding it leads to a host of concerns about CUC’s conduct and management. Despite the attorney general’s assertions, he noted, CUC had to get a host of government approvals for the Aggreko deal to move forward. “To suggest that it’s not an agency or instrument of the CNMI government, that’s the most absurd thing someone can say,” Propst added.

However, Gregory defended the opinion, saying that solid legal arguments refuting it have not yet surfaced. “I stand by the opinion and the reasoning behind it,” Gregory said. “I certainly have never heard anyone say they had a problem with it before.”