Manning assures healthy, safe La Brea power plant

Camille Bethel cbethel@trinidadexpress.com
Saturday, June 13th 2009
http://www.trinidadexpress.com/index.pl/article_news?id=161490359

Prime Minister Patrick Manning has given his reassurance that the highest standards of health and safety will be upheld at the power plant being built at the Union Industrial Estate, La Brea.

"Let me make it very clear that we are very conscious of the health and safety requirements that must accompany industrial development. We have, therefore, insisted that all industrial undertakings must have due regard to health, safety and the environment," he said while delivering the feature address at the sod-turning ceremony marking the start of construction of a power plant that will supply electricity for the Alutrint aluminium smelter in La Brea.

The planned smelter has seen growing opposition from residents of surrounding villages, dissatisfied with jobs, housing issues and reports that some 4,000 people will be tested for cancer every two years.

Manning has dismissed this protest as coming from environmental outsiders and believes that support for the smelter is strong among the people of La Brea.

Manning said that the "state-of-the-art Combined Cycle Gas Turbine (CCBT) technology that will be used at the plant is endorsed by the World Energy Council, which has underscored the importance of power generation through the use of clean and more efficient technologies in achieving economic development".

This, he said, is in keeping with the increasing global requirement for greater use of clean energy technologies in the generation of power.