BY GILBERT P. BAYORAN
Let us not be selfish.
This was the message of Mayor Renato Gustilo to environmentalist groups opposing the proposed construction of a 300 MW Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) power plant in San Carlos City, Negros Occidental.
Gustilo said that LNG has been allowed by the national government, as a source of energy. “Who am I to object,” he asked.
Those who are protesting against the planned LNG power plant in San Carlos City, Negros Occidental, are also using electricity from three coal-fired power plants in Panay island, and three more others in Cebu, that they are also opposing, Gustilo said
They should stop first the operations of six coal-fired power plants in Cebu and Panay, before opposing the planned construction of LNG in San Carlos, he pointed out.
“Kun indi sila gusto mag (If they don’t want) fossil fuel, well they have to cut off the electricity in their home. Secondly, if they have vehicle, you do not use vehicle, you go back to the traditional kalesa,” Gustilo said
San Carlos Bishop Gerardo Alminaza and environmental groups are demanding the Negros Occidental Sangguniang Panlalawigan to revoke what they claimed “invalid and premature Resolution of Non-Objection (RONO), in connection to the planned construction of Reliance Energy Development Inc. (REDI)’s 300 MW Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) power plant, in San Carlos City, Negros Occidental.”
“We maintain that the resolution of non-objection from the Provincial Board is premature, invalid, and is not representative of the multiple stakeholders from San Carlos who openly objected against the LNG project during the public scoping,” Alminaza said in an issued statement on the proposed power plant by the San Miguel Corporation-owned Reliance Energy Development Inc. (REDI-SMC).
Gustilo said he would welcome rallies of environmentalists, even in front of the San Carlos City Hall, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
He added that he is willing to give them a permit and even feed them.
Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson yesterday said that they already received the position paper of the environmentalist groups.
We’re studying it now, Lacson added.*
