Dear Source:
               The only serious solution to our outrageous WAPA bills is to convert to natural gas!
               Fuel oil costs are over 80 percent of our bills and Natural Gas is 1/7th the price of our present fuel.  For every $1 of our present fuel oil, natural gas would only cost us 14 cents, or 86 cents cheaper than oil.  By converting to natural gas, we could reduce our WAPA bills by more than half within a couple years, if we start to change fuels now.  Natural gas is clean, cheap, and abundant and it should be our fuel.  By using this smarter fuel, our USA natural gas offers us a better future of stabile electrical costs.  Imagine the effect on our lives, our families, our shopping, and our tourism market by reducing our WAPA bills.
               Why isn’t WAPA and our Government dedicating every moment in the effort to convert to natural gas?  Please WAPA, tell us what you have up your sleeve of solutions which will lower our bills and bring an end to these out of control rates.  WAPA is the single, most important issue challenging us today.

               Yes, WAPA does have a 10 MegaWatt RFP for solar in a couple years.  10 MW is less than 1/15th of our needs.  So, do the math; how many pennies will that eventually lower our bills? This is clearly not the cure nor is the submerged cable to Puerto Rico the solution.  That PR cable will cost many $100’s of millions and will hardly change our rates.  Whatever you think about Alpine, at best it is only a bandaid.  We need to put our efforts and monies into developing a system using natural gas and it’s game changing potential.
               We are more prepared than we think to convert to this technology.  On the south shore of St. Croix is the HOVENSA and STX Renaissance ports, perfect for creating a natural gas depot. Also, there is

a qualified, underemployed workforce leftover from HOVENSA who could help spearhead this change.  Come on, let’s be “innovators” and bring natural gas to our islands and also to the other needy Caribbean islands looking for less expensive power.  A whole new industry could be created here in our
Virgin Islands.
               What we will need to do is to build natural gas fuel tanks and a shipping system to supply the islands.  Everything is shipping and tanks in our present fuel system so we just have to devote our efforts to natural gas.  Then we have to convert our WAPA turbines to using natural gas.   And how do we pay for it?  Besides seeking a Federal startup loan, the 86 cents per dollar fuel savings should go a long way to funding this change and lowering our bills.  Also, with natural gas, we can explore other technologies, for instance, my favorite is BLOOM ENERGY.com, check it out!
               But please, WAPA, PSC, Governor, Energy Office, please tell us, “what is your long range plan towards lowering our WAPA bills, because these rates are strangling our economy and our families‘ future.  If you don’t have such a plan, own up to it and level with us, and honestly tell us that these painful years of skyrocketing WAPA bills is only going to get worse.
               We all sit in hope, thinking that all will get better, will it?
Steve Black
St. John