Cutting Energy Costs Could Transform Territory

The Virgin Islands' efforts to free itself from dependence on fossil fuels will mean big changes in the lives of islanders, Energy Office Director Karl Knight said Saturday.

"Life will never be the same in the Virgin Islands," Knight told an audience of about 40 people attending a conference sponsored by AARP and the League of Women Voters.

The conference, "EDIN and LEAC for Residential Consumers," was designed to explain the factors that lead to high energy costs in the territory. It is the first of what conference officials said will be a series of meetings on issues of importance to the territory.

Because LEAC – the much-discussed Levelized Energy Adjustment Clause – is directly tied to the cost of fossil fuel used to generate electricity, the only way to lower it is to lower the use of those fossil fuels. A year ago, Gov. John de Jongh Jr. set a goal of reducing the territory's use of fossil fuels 60 percent by the year 2025.

That seems like a huge undertaking, and Knight did not downplay the challenge. But the territory has a plan for achieving that ambitious goal, he said, and is already on its way.