Politics

As Ratepayers Protest WAPA, Bryan Urges PSC To Vote in Favor of Rate Increase

While Virgin Islands residents and businesses spent the better part of this year in all-out protest against WAPA’s latest bid for an increase in utility rates, Governor Albert Bryan has been quietly using his bully pulpit to help push through the unpopular rate hike.   In a two-page memorandum filed with the V.I. Public Services Commission (PSC) in the base rate case, Mr. Bryan added his full-throated support of the Water and Power Authority’s petition for a rate increase.    “We request that the firm support of the Government of the Virgin Islands for granting base rate relief be included in the findings of facts and conclusions of the hearing examiner,” Mr. Bryan wrote in an Oct. 24th memorandum to attorney Kye Walker, the hearing examiner whose recommendations will guide the PSC vote next month.   “While we have a strong desire to suppress any escalation of the electric rates for obvious political and economic reasons, we also understand that starving VIWAPA of the cash resour...