An economist, Dr Nii Moi Thompson, has called for a non-partisan debate on energy that would come up with a comprehensive policy to guide the country to overcome its energy challenges. In an interview with the Daily Graphic yesterday, he said it had become clear that a partisan approach to solving the energy crisis could not help the nation, adding that the energy issue must be considered a national affair to be solved by consensus. Dr Thompson, who is also the Convention People’s Party (CPP) Spokesperson on Economic Affairs, said Ghana at present had no national policy on energy, pointing out that what was needed was a policy direction to bail the country out of the crisis. He said the CPP, as a mass political party, had come to the conclusion that there was time to do politics and time to do away with it and mentioned the energy problems confronting the nation as one such moment to do away with partisan politics. “We need to come together to discuss what is going on in the energy sector because the energy front is not what it used to be 10 years ago,” he stated, adding, “It does not appear that any one government has the capacity to do it alone.” He said while the dynamics of pricing and the structures of prices had all changed, the debate that revolved around taxes had not changed. “Ghana must, therefore, develop a modern and well-resourced energy planning system to ensure that we generate enough energy to keep pace with our economic and social needs at all times,” he pointed out. He said the energy policy must also look at security, while endeavouring to diversify the sources and location of energy production, adding that it must seek to address regulation and ownership, financing, accessibility and affordability, as well as conservation. He said the Energy Commission, the Energy Foundation, the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission, civil society organisations and the relevant key government ministries and agencies must play active roles in the development of that policy and make Ghana a global leader in energy studies. He also mentioned bio-mass energy sources as critical, since they would manage a reduction of the country’s dependence on wood fuel towards more environmentally friendly sources such as LPG, while promoting the use of agricultural residue liquid and solid waste as sources of energy. Source: Daily Graphic