{"id":17086,"date":"2015-02-05T10:05:20","date_gmt":"2015-02-05T10:05:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/viconsortium.com\/?p=17086"},"modified":"2015-02-05T12:15:07","modified_gmt":"2015-02-05T12:15:07","slug":"gov-mapp-sends-proposal-to-senate-seeking-1-million-for-hovensa-litigation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?p=17086","title":{"rendered":"Gov. Mapp Sends Proposal To Senate Seeking $1 Million For HOVENSA Litigation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Governor Kenneth Mapp Wednesday forwarded a proposal to the President of the 31st Legislature Neville James seeking authorization and appropriation of $1 million to retain counsel in the government&#8217;s intended\u00a0litigation against Hess Oil &#8220;to enforce the rights of the people of the Virgin Islands pursuant to the concession and Settlement Agreements entered into between Hess Oil, its related entities, and the U.S. Virgin Islands,&#8221; according to Government House.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Mapp\u00a0previously made mention of his intention to seek funds for the litigation process during his State of the Territory Address on Monday, Jan. 26, where he said market conditions forced both parties to take varying paths in their quest for a resolution.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Our relationship, the territory&#8217;s and Hess Oil, for the most part, has been a good one. But according to Hess, market forces have brought us to this point where we must part company,&#8221; the governor said during his address.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;And, let us assume for the purposes of this discussion that the closure was solely driven by market forces,&#8221; Mapp continued, &#8220;Hess Oil wants to leave and, frankly speaking, the people of the Virgin Islands aren&#8217;t interested in forcing them to stay. In other words, as we say on the Big Island, it&#8217;s time to turn a page. However, there must be an orderly exit, with Hess Oil fulfilling its obligations to the people of this territory.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, Monarch Energy Partners, a company <span style=\"color: #3366ff;\"><a style=\"color: #3366ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/viconsortium.com\/business\/monarch-energy-partners-returning-to-st-croix-in-early-february\/\" target=\"_blank\">still interested<\/a><\/span> in purchasing HOVENSA, say its principals would be visiting St. Croix in the second week of February, as their company continued to &#8220;work behind the scenes&#8221; to purchase the refinery.<\/p>\n<p>Elsewhere,\u00a0Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC), a U.S. government agency, <span style=\"color: #3366ff;\"><a style=\"color: #3366ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/viconsortium.com\/business\/pension-agency-to-pay-hovensa-retirement-benefits\/\" target=\"_blank\">will start paying retirement benefits for more than 1,600 current and future retirees of HOVENSA<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>because the company\u00a0has closed its\u00a0operations and its pension plan has been\u00a0abandoned as of\u00a0Feb. 4, according to information reported\u00a0on the <span style=\"color: #3366ff;\"><a style=\"color: #3366ff;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.pbgc.gov\/about\/who-we-are\/retirement-matters\/\">PBGC website<\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Governor Kenneth Mapp Wednesday forwarded a proposal to the President of the 31st Legislature Neville James seeking authorization and appropriation of $1 million to retain counsel in the government&#8217;s intended\u00a0litigation against Hess Oil &#8220;to enforce the rights of the people of the Virgin Islands pursuant to the concession and Settlement Agreements entered into between Hess [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16601,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3,854,191,147],"tags":[735],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Gov. Mapp Sends Proposal To Senate Seeking $1 Million For HOVENSA Litigation - V.I. Consortium<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Governor Kenneth Mapp is seeking $1 million from the 31st Legislature to retain counsel for its legal counsel against HOVENSA.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?p=17086\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Ernice Gilbert\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?p=17086\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?p=17086\",\"name\":\"Gov. 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I've been the Editor-In-Chief at my videogames website, Gamesthirst, for over 5 years, writing over 7,000 articles and more than 2 million words. I'm also very passionate about where I live, the United States Virgin Islands, and I'm intent on making it a better place by being resourceful and keeping our leaders honest. VI Consortium was birthed out of said desire, hopefully my efforts bear fruit. Reach me at ernice@viconsortium.com.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/ernicegilbert.com\/\"],\"url\":\"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?author=1\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Gov. Mapp Sends Proposal To Senate Seeking $1 Million For HOVENSA Litigation - V.I. 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