Governor elect of the USVI Kenneth E. Mapp. Photo: VINO

A USVI power plant. Photo: Internet souce

Mapp spoke to this news site on issues affecting the USVI in a recent exclusive interview when he was asked about his priority areas of focus when he becomes the new Governor.

“The USVI is plagued with a tremendous energy cost that is wrecking families…we have seniors and households that don’t have large incomes coming completely off the electrical grid and living on candles,” he said.

“It is closing businesses and costing jobs and singularly that is one of the biggest issues we have to deal with in the USVI and we have led a strategy to take that on,” he said.

He also expressed concern for the Territory’s infrastructure and said that he is seeking federal partnership to fix this.

“The breakdown of our infrastructure is something that we are speaking with our federal partners about in terms of the amount of money we have lost by allotments being reduced for roads repair, port repair…we are working to reestablish them,” he said.

He noted that as an Independent, he acknowledges that the USVI has fared better with a Republican Congress. “I guess because of their philosophy to push trade and investment we have less restrictions which make it good for the US Virgin Islands in terms of investment,” he said.

“We have to work on the infrastructure and we have to work on the high cost of energy as we can’t do anything else unless we solve the high cost of energy. It is strapping the Government in terms of our costs and killing businesses. We [in the USVI] are living in one of the highest cost of living areas in America. It is costing jobs and it has pushed the middle class of the USVI out. It is shrinking the economy so we have to tackle these issues as priority,” said Mapp.