And now for something completely different today – the inefficient use of energy in Trinidad and Tobago.
There are many manifestations of this, from motorists driving too many unnecessary kilometres to managers keeping the air-conditioning on at too high a temperature in the office.
The late Jamaican energy guru, Dr Raymond Marcio Wright, who wrote the definitive book on renewable energy (RE) and energy efficiency in the Caribbean - "The New Agenda", which he published himself in 2010 – depicted Trinidad and Tobago as the second least energy efficient country among a group of seven selected states in the region.
Only Guyana was worse than us and that is hardly something to boast about.
Even Haiti was better.
You may be interested in Dr Wright's "energy intensity index" of the states concerned ("energy intensity" being, as he explained, "a measure of the energy efficiency of a nation's economy, calculated as units of energy used per gross domestic product.
High energy intensity indicates that a country needs more energy consumption to generate one dollar of GDP and low energy intensity indicates that a country needs less energy consumption to generate one dollar of GDP)."
Country Energy Intensity
Guyana 7.2
Trinidad and Tobago 4.8
Haiti 4.0
Suriname 3.5
Jamaica 3.0
Dominican Republic 1.0
Barbados 0.9
Its not surprising that Barbados, with its great success in moving away from electricity to solar power for water heating in particular, enjoys top dog status. Jamaica has also done relatively well through its adoption of more RE sources than anywhere else in the region. The Dominican Republic's high status surprises me and maybe some energy analyst there can enlighten us on why.
It should be said, of course, that the present People's Partnership government has not ignored the subject of energy efficiency (nor, indeed, RE).
In fact, it was probably too quick off the mark in offering tax incentives in its very first national budget in 2010, allowing companies 150 per cent write-offs for undertaking energy audits and 75 per cent depreciation in the year of acquisition of smart energy efficient systems by auditing companies.
Neither incentive has produced much positive result, since there is yet no system in place for registering what are known as "energy services companies" (ESCOs) so they can go ahead and legally organise their assessments of firms' use of energy.
A committee was appointed by Energy and Energy Affairs Minister Kevin Christian Ramnarine in January this year to come up with guidelines for licensing such firms but the outcome is so far unknown.
Minister Ramnarine himself is well aware of the need for more efficient utilisation of energy since he has confessed to suffering from its effects in his own office.
His ministry inhabits several floors of Tower C in the magnificent International Waterfront Centre built by the former People's National Movement (PNM) administration.
Indeed the energy ministry was the first government department to move in there and others have since been falling over themselves to follow suit (despite the sneering about money being wasted in "tall buildings" that we have often heard from the less visionary members of the present Cabinet).
But the minister's experience is that while the view of the Gulf of Paria and the city of Port of Spain are breathtaking, the environment in the building itself is less than work-inducing.
Why?
The use of energy in the tower is less than optimal. Ramnarine himself describes it as "very cold, almost unbearable at night and constantly heated by the sun during the day, with no insulation to reduce the impact".
This seems to have made him an even greater convert to energy efficiency than he may have been before.
He now insists that energy efficiency in buildings is an objective that must be pursued more vigorously by the ministry.
"The Waterfront Towers are an example of buildings that were clearly not outfitted with any sort of energy efficiency in mind."
The minister made these observations, by the way, at a "UK-UWI Renewable Energy Seminar and Workshop" organised by the University and the British High Commission in Port of Spain, now newly energised by the presence of a young and energy-efficient High Commissioner, His Excellency Arthur Snell.
Of course, its not easy to sell the idea of the adoption of RE to a Trinidad and Tobago audience, since businesses and households have absolutely no incentive for conversion, what with the main transportation fuels subsidised by government policy and LPG for households also sold below what would be a strictly market price.
But the UK companies that came on the mission and helped conduct the workshop may make greater inroads with the energy efficiency theme, because even with the availability of cheaper energy, most users would presumably still see the sense of saving even more money by using even less of that energy.
The government itself could be their best client initially since, as the minister points out, "historically, the public sector, especially in the US and Germany, is one of the most important clients for ESCOs. The number of energy auditing projects implemented in public buildings was in fact, a major impetus for the development of the ESCO industry."
Well, Ramnarine himself is taking the lead in this regard by, as he says, "starting to take the lights off in my office".
He is determined, he says, "to change the collective consciousness of the country with regard to how we treat our relationship with energy – its not something to be wasted, its something to be conserved".
This will gladden the heart of architect Gillian Fraser, one of the live wires behind the 20-month-old Trinidad and Tobago Green Building Council (TTGBC).
Never heard of it?
That's not surprising because it has not promoted its work very much (and I trust it is grateful to me for doing so now).
The Trinidad and Tobago outfit was spawned by the Green Building Council in the US, which offers a rating system for US buildings, based on the extent to which the owners and tenants employ methods that promote energy efficiency. If they do in the manner required, their buildings can be declared to meet Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standards.
Several professionals in Trinidad and Tobago are qualified to declare whether a structure meets LEED standards, Ms Fraser among them.
Perhaps minister Ramnarine may, in due course want to apply on behalf of the building in which his ministry is housed?
David Renwick was awarded the Hummingbird Medal Gold in 2008 for the development of energy journalism in Trinidad and Tobago.
