Jamaica's proposal to displace methyl teritary butyl ether (MTBE) with ethanol, as an octane enhancer in gasolene, preceded the Golding administration by several years, and has been a critical part of the project for salvaging the sugar cane industry in the face of continuing erosion of the preferential market for sugar in the European Union.

Indeed, the recently completed two-year effort to divest sugar factories and estates owned by the Government was predicated on this policy, and testing of the so-called E10 blend of 10 per cent ethanol to 90 per cent gasolene was ongoing for the better part of three years.

So, last week, when Prime Minister Bruce Golding announced that the roll-out of E10 would begin at Jamaican petrol stations next month, it would hardly have caused a blip among observers, who have been paying even only casual attention. Except, it seems, the Golding administration, in office for almost a year, has not been doing its homework, or has not been talking to the key players in the petroleum trade. Indeed, Errol Edwards, president of the Jamaica Gasolene Retailers Association, says the PM's timetable is unrealistic.

Legislation

According to Mr Edwards, introducing E10 is more than saying it is to happen, or passing legislation to make its use mandatory. There is an economic factor to which, Mr Edwards suggests, the Government hasn't given thought.

For instance, storage tanks at petrol stations will have to be flushed to accommodate the E10 at the correct technical specification. That, industry officials say, will be an expensive exercise, the cost of which is not yet fully worked out. It seems that the petroleum marketing companies will have to embrace that bill, although that is not a certainty, and the companies hope that it will not be the case.

In any event, people such as Mr Edwards say, there is just not the manpower to complete the jobs of flushing tanks at the service stations that are to come on stream next month, within the requisite time frame. This newspaper, on Tuesday, quoted an executive of a marketing company as saying: "It is a disaster coming with all this rush and no proper consultation and technical analysis."

Good for the environment

That, if it is true - and we have no reason to assume it isn't - is a major indictment against the government. After all, this first phase of the diversification of the sugar cane industry is among the biggest shifts in Jamaican industry in decades, outside, perhaps, the evolution of the information and communications technology sector early in this decade, and the recent second wave of hotel construction. Moreover, despite small reductions in consumption over the past two years, Jamaicans, last year, consumed over four million barrels of gasolene, at an ever-rising price for the commodity.

The E10 blend, at the very least, will, as domestic production of ethanol increases, save Jamaica foreign exchange and will be good for the environment. We will emit less carbon dioxide. It is important, therefore, that the Government gets this right and not go off half-cocked, make a mess of things and undermine the project.

It seems to us that Mr Golding needs to have a talk with Clive Mullings, who still has effective control of the energy sector.