Mangal-Joly calls on Mustapha to provide data for conclusion...
Flemish Pass Exploratory Drilling Project and Eastern Newfoundland Offshore Exploratory Drilling Programme in 2019 – a year midway of its 2015-2021 submissions here in Guyana.
“You would note that ExxonMobil understood fully that a credible impact assessment required identification of where its operations would occur relative to ecologically significant areas as well as the fishing grounds used by fisherfolk. I invite you to compare these maps with the ones ExxonMobil provided to Guyana in all the EIAs conducted to date (an example included) – you will see that Guyana just gets served up a shot of which oil block Exxon Mobil will be operating in.
“…it is impossible for you to sustainably manage Guyana’s fisheries sector if the Environmental Protection Agency continues to indulge ExxonMobil with what appears to be a pathological propensity for ignoring the legal requirements and established standards for the conduct of an Environmental Impact Assessment,” Mustapha was informed.
Identifying the EPA’s continued silence on its reported violation of the Environmental Protection
Act when issuing the environmental permit for Yellowtail development, Mangal-Joly told Mustapha that citizens cannot rely on the agency to demonstrate competence, independence, and respect for the rule of law.
“…your revelation that the FAO has determined that the oil industry is not responsible for the low fish catch offshore is a gamechanger. Clearly, the FAO has not drawn this conclusion from data provided by ExxonMobil’s EIAs, as such data does not exist. The FAO must have therefore independently studied and acquired the necessary data to draw this conclusion. These studies must have over the years also included the mapping and identification of valuable environmental areas offshore, location of fishing grounds, and impact monitoring and evaluation data.
“By providing the public its report, the FAO can make a significant positive contribution to environmental impact assessment processes for offshore oil and gas activities in Guyana. If perchance Your Excellency has misspoken on this matter, your office and the FAO must publicly clarify this matter, particularly as this issue is the subject of great national debate and importance and the EPA has, albeit illegally, illustrated its significance by including the requirement for a fisheries impact study in the Yellowtail Environmental Permit,” her letter concluded.
Mangal-Joly is one of a number of environmentalists and activists that have been consistently calling on the EPA to mandate ExxonMobil to provide comprehensive data on the effects of its operations on marine life. Thus far, those calls have largely fallen on deaf ears.