Escalating cost of coal over the next decade

 - VIREO recommends against WAPA investing in coal-fired boilers if that commits the USVI to energy derived from coal combustion for 20 years. (See graph below.) Coal prices are expected to escalate as this finite resource is depleted from the coalfields now being mined. The existing coal boiler at St. Croix Renaissance Group is permitted by EPA to burn only low-sulfur coal (called “compliance coal”, or “metallurgical coal”), which is more expensive than highsulfur content coal. Over the last three years, the cost of Colombian compliance coal that was formerly used in the coal-fired boiler at the Renaissance Group has doubled in cost. Coal costs are also increasing in the United States: Metallurgical coal from Walter Industries in Alabama increased in cost by an average of 40.5% per year over the period 2003 to 2007. At half of the Walter Industries coal inflation rate (20% per year), a ton of coal at the dock in Alabama would go from $92 in 2007 to $191 per ton  in 2011. We are concerned that if WAPA signs a 20-yr electricity supply contract for which coal is the energy source, and coal price inflation continues on the same track it has in the past four years, St. Croix will be in the same situation it is now: locked into relying on an escalating fossil fuel for about a third of its electricity.

Degradation of the environment and ecotourism product of St. Croix

 - The VI Department of Tourism and others are advocating for branding of St. Croix as a culture, history and nature tourism destination. The quality of our air, land and sea contribute toward the quality and value of this product. As WAPA considers contracting for energy from a coal-fired boiler, we need to understand the impacts of such a decision on our tourism product.

Costs in terms of the health and welfare of USVI citizens