BY GILBERT P. BAYORAN
Clean energy and sustainability groups yesterday said that unlocking renewables should be the priority of local government and stakeholders alike for the benefit of Negrosanon consumers and the environment.
While he agrees with San Carlos City Mayor Renato that the source of electricity in Negros Island originates from coal-fired power plants outside Negros Island, Bishop Gerardo Alminaza said that Negrenses have no choice but to rely on dirty energy. “It is something which we have been lamenting about for long, and is precisely the problem that we are asking him to help address,” he added.
Gustilo earlier challenged environmentalist groups opposing the 300MW liquefied natural gas project of San Miguel Corporation in San Carlos City to cut off their electricity if they do not want to make use of fossil fuels, since power used in Negros Occidental is contracted from coal-fired power plants in Panay and Cebu.
Negros Island is dubbed as the Philippines’ renewable energy (RE) capital, with its installed power generation plants producing nearly 100 percent RE. Electric cooperatives, however, contract power from plants outside Negros.
“We produce large capacities of clean energy, yet our people are not even able to fully harness and benefit from this. Allowing LNG to enter our shores diverts our attention from maximizing truly sustainable energy while subjecting host communities and the environment – including the bountiful marine life of Tañon Strait – to pollution and disturbance, as well as an intensifying climate crisis,” Alminaza, who also serves as convenor of advocacy group REpower Negros, said in a statement.
The San Carlos bishop further stressed that there is no assurance of more affordable energy costs with LNG, especially with the prices of gas and other fossil fuels rising to record highs with disruptions to the global supply chain.
“Unless we shift to using renewables to power our homes, Negrosanons are bound to continue suffering from fossil fuel power that is costly to both our pockets and our environment,” he added.
Bishop Alminaza and concerned groups have been vocal in opposing the SMC LNG projects and demanding a recall of the resolution of non-objection (RONO) from the Sangguniang Panlalawigan, which, as the groups maintain, was prematurely and unjustly issued to the project.*
