CNMI DECLARES EMERGENCY, TAKES OVER UTILITY
SAIPAN, CNMI (Marianas Variety, May 20) – Commonwealth of the Northern
Mariana Islands Gov. Juan N. Babauta yesterday declared that the
financially troubled Commonwealth Utilities Corp. is under a state of
emergency, which strips the CUC board of its power and suspends the agency’s
autonomy for an indefinite period of time. “In the last 90 days, the
government has paid CUC $5.1 million. Government is paying its bill; the
public is paying its bill. But still the power is going out all over
Saipan. We cannot maintain our economy, we cannot expect new investment,
without a completely dependable electric service,” Babauta said. As of
April, the government owed CUC $13 million in unpaid utility bills,
according to the agency. For the past two weeks unannounced power outages
struck Saipan either due to lack of fuel, human error or troubled power
plant equipment. The latest power outage occurred on Tuesday, when
visiting U.S. Interior Assistant Secretary-designate P. Lynn Scarlett a
nd a group of U.S. investors were looking into CNMI business
opportunities. Power was only restored later that same day when CUC decided to
purchase 20,000 gallons of fuel from Shell Marianas.
2005.05.20
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