Playing the ukulele…as the NMI burns down

If there is anything that the Fitial administration is good at, it is at wasting precious time, resources, and money. Of course, this administration could say that they received federal money to explore geothermal power. Waste is waste, whether it is federal money or local government money. It reminds me of when I see all these V-8 super-charged SUVs and monster trucks with the sides emblazoned, “Federally Funded.” Hey genius, the vehicle may be federally funded, but is the gas federally funded too?

The chances of drilling and finding a reliable source of geothermal power on Saipan is akin to accidentally discovering oil while drilling. …while at the same time discovering the remains of Amelia Earheart. …who was buried next to a treasure chest of gold…which was hidden by a leprechaun.

So who will truly benefit from geothermal drilling? Who else? The well-connected Saipan landowner. I am sure the property rights to drill on the property will be around $1,000,000. My figures might be off a bit, but if you could pay a company like DCM $5 million to fix our generators without any penalty clause, it would not surprise me if my figures were actually on target. Hopefully the Fitial administration will disclose this as soon as Governor Fitial gets back from his whirlwind tour to the United States after working hard to sue the federal government with undisclosed sources of money, a.k.a “sympathizers.” Such a thing would be deemed immoral, if not illegal, in the U.S. But not in Saipan! But that is another story for another time, one in which we will wait for the Governor’s attorney, Matt Gregory, to state his legal opinion on the matter.

Of course, after drilling on Saipan and paying off big sums of money to landowners, Pagan will be explored and drilled. But even if geothermal power was a possibility on Pagan, the transportation of the power would be a huge expense! How much exactly? Just to lay a power line from Pagan to Saipan will cost $1 million per mile, which means it will cost a whopping $200 million! Do you know how many sole-sourced “emergency” contracts Governor Fitial can dish out for $200 million? DCM could get at least 40 contracts! And maybe, just maybe, DCM might be able to complete one of them!

In the meantime, while Governor Fitial sues the federal government and explores geothermal power on Saipan, our utility rates continue to escalate without any chance of it slowing down; more power outages are expected because of the questionable sole-source “emergency” contracts that Governor Fitial dished out by the dozens; CUC continues to be run by an inexperienced executive director; and we continue to see businesses close their doors because it is just too expensive to do business in Saipan.

Sorry Governor, but not even a peanut butter factory can solve all of our problems at this point.

It is said that Emperor Nero played the fiddle while most of Rome burned to the ground. While the CNMI burns to the ground, I am sure Governor Fitial will be playing the ukulele…

Play on Governor!