The Bermuda Clean Air Coalition commends government minister Jason Hayward for publicly acknowledging “significant accumulation of soot” in residential areas, particularly around the North Power Station. Mr Hayward, who represents Pembroke Central, also made it clear that the utility company “was not making the health and safety of residents a priority” and concluded: “Environmental justice is not optional, it is a fundamental right.”

The BCAC agrees. But words alone are not enough — the Government and regulators must act. Residents and schools are breathing contaminated air, while water filters gush sludge and roofs remain stained rust-brown.

The Government and regulators must stop stalling and act now to protect public health. Former home affairs minister Walter Roban’s promised clean-air reforms were a sham; the “phased mitigation” claims by Nadir Wade at Belco are false; and the “critical juncture” talk from Jeffrey Steynor, Belco’s director of energy transition and business development, is corporate fluff.

While residents and schoolchildren breathe contaminated air and clean oily sludge from their roofs and water tanks, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources is fixated on outdated agricultural import restrictions — limiting bananas and banning Florida citrus and oranges — instead of tackling industrial pollution.

It’s the same pattern of misplaced priorities: wasting time on policies that raise food prices while ignoring the toxic emissions poisoning our communities. It is time to reverse those priorities by implementing immediate clean-air regulations, establishing independent air and water monitoring beyond Belco’s control, and requiring major, sustained reductions in emissions to protect public health — or face crushing fines and penalties for continued violations.

Belco’s actions remain superficial. Its white and greenwashing tactics of painting roofs, washing cars and telling residents it is “compliant” are rinse-and-repeat, PR stunts. These half-measures do nothing to curb the soot, heavy fuel oil emissions and particulate fallout that residents face daily. Wind direction, not Belco effort, determines who gets coated and who does not, with fallout and fumes affecting at least nine schools and homes in Pembroke and the City.

Belco also spends heavily on positive media coverage and sponsored social-media content in an attempt to greenwash the reality of its pollution. This PR spending might work on distant audiences, but it is failing completely with the residents of North Pembroke, who continue to live under Belco’s fallout plume.

The facts are clear. Ricardo Energy & Environment, a respected British environmental consultancy, determined in its 2021 review that pollution was caused by Belco burning heavy fuel oil.

Its conclusion was unequivocal:

“The most effective way to mitigate this problem would be to use a lower-polluting fuel such as diesel or natural gas, but this would incur significant additional costs.”

Belco has known the solution for years but has chosen not to fully implement it, prioritising profit over health.

Meanwhile, the DENR is harming Bermudians in multiple ways. It allows industrial polluters such as Belco to poison schoolchildren’s lungs and water supplies with toxic soot and emissions, while simultaneously denying them access to fresh fruits and vegetables through outdated import restrictions that dramatically increase costs. These are not abstract harms — Bermuda has some of the highest rates of diabetes, cancer and obesity in the developed world, and affordable, fresh nutrition is one of the most effective ways to fight them.

Instead, the DENR’s policies drive up grocery bills, reduce quality and choice, and keep healthier options out of reach for thousands of families. At the same time, the agency ignores the severe and lasting health impacts of industrial pollution on children and adults alike, which only worsens this public health crisis and pushes Bermuda’s already crushing medical and health insurance costs even higher.

While Belco charges some of the highest electricity rates in the world, its regulators look the other way. The DENR, the Regulatory Authority and the Environmental Authority have become politically captured — serving the interests of political masters and corporate allies rather than protecting the public they are meant to serve. This is not environmental protection; it’s political protection for corporate polluters and a direct attack on the public’s health, wallets and future.

The Clean Air Amendment Act 2024 — another DENR creation — was rushed through after a sham, three-week consultation period and remains toothless without the implementing regulations. The Government promised those regulations would follow quickly in 2025. They have not. It was a political pre-election stunt, nothing more. As a result, Bermuda is stuck with environmental rules that are more than 30 years old.

The BCAC reminds the public that under Mr Roban’s tenure, the Ministry of Home Affairs repeatedly promised us — and the public — that it would strengthen Bermuda’s clean-air laws through open consultation. Instead, we saw only three weeks given for public comment on four significant pieces of legislation — after four years of internal drafting. We were promised town halls and workshops. None happened. When the BCAC protested the rushed process, a short extension was granted, but still insufficient for international experts to provide full technical input.

Despite the BCAC producing a comprehensive, 89-page expert report over the summer of 2024, the DENR and Roban never reached out to us to discuss or review our findings— even though he stated publicly that he would. Instead, in December 2024, he tabled an underwhelming Clean Air Amendment Act without the necessary regulations, rendering it toothless. These betrayals led the BCAC to call for Roban’s immediate resignation.

Mr Wade’s “phased mitigation” language is also empty when residents continue to find fresh soot after every wind shift. His claim that Belco “was in communication with the Bermuda Clean Air Coalition” and that the utility’s mitigation has “resulted in significant reductions in fallout and odour incidents” has not been accurate for years. Residents know the truth from their own lived experience.

Finally, Dr Steynor, recently declared Bermuda is at a “critical juncture” and needs “careful planning to ensure reliable, affordable electricity while moving towards sustainability”. Yet this same leadership has failed to plan for decades — choosing instead to take profits, burn heavy fuel oil, and raise prices. His Royal Gazette opinion piece of July 21, titled “The energy equation: Bermuda’s great debate”, was corporate fluff, not an actionable plan.

The BCAC demands that the Government stop stalling and immediately publish and enact the updated Clean Air Amendment Regulations.

This year. Not next year. Not “in due course”.

These regulations must be backed by independent, regulatory-grade air and water monitoring across all affected communities, with equipment that Belco cannot calibrate, control or influence. The Government must finally enforce public health laws by using statutory nuisance powers wherever air or water quality is compromised, and it must end the corporate greenwashing by forcing Belco to stop polluting or face crushing fines and penalties.

The BCAC has been calling for this action for years — including in our response submitted to the DENR on August 31, 2024, titled Bermuda Clean Air Coalition and Earth Forward Group: Joint Response on Proposed 2024 Clean Air Act and Regulations.

We will not accept any more political excuses, delays, or broken promises.

We call on the new home affairs minister, Alexa Lightbourne, and Jaché Adams, the Minister of Public Works and Environment, to lead us to a brighter future. This crisis is not of your making — it’s the product of years of bad management and political failure — but you now have the chance and the duty to fix it.

Bermuda needs you to deliver where your predecessors failed.

• The Bermuda Clean Air Coalition is a grassroots network of residents, parents and businesses living under Belco’s fallout plume and other industrial pollution. We exist because government regulators have failed to protect public health, and corporate polluters have put profit over people