Green campaigners have hit out at a “conflict of interest” over a controversial Government deal with an energy firm to bring tidal power to Bermuda.

The Bermuda Environmental Sustainability Taskforce said the contract with Seabased to develop a wave energy farm off St George’s raised several questions.

BEST highlighted that the Environmental Impact Assessment for the project would be carried out by Seabased.

A BEST spokeswoman said: “We see this as an obvious conflict of interest and would expect that, for an EIA to be truly objective, it would need to be conducted in close consultation with an independent entity without the vested interest in seeing the project go ahead.

“This would include continuous monitoring at regular intervals during the project.”

Ministers earlier defended the Government’s relationship with Seabased, whose headquarters are in Ireland, after the One Bermuda Alliance said it was “odd” that only one firm had been in the running.

BEST also demanded answers from the Government in a range of other areas.

The spokeswoman asked: “If the pilot project is successful, will the area need to be enlarged to be commercialised and what dredging will be required for undersea transmission lines to the mainland, as well as development of any onshore power storage/transmission facility?”

Read more here: https://www.royalgazette.com/politics/news/article/20211217/environmental-charity-questions-wave-power-deal/