Multi-sectoral groups renew stance vs. coal-fired power plant
Environmental groups and the Catholic Church are opposing a plan to put up a coal-fired power plant in Iloilo City warning of health and pollution risks.
The groups said the proposal to build a 100-megawatt coal plant in La Paz District should be shelved and replaced by projects tapping on renewable sources of energy.
Global Business Power Corp. (GBPC) and Panay Power Corp. (PPC) are proposing to construct the coal plant at the PPC plant site in Barangay Ingore here. The project is among those considered to boost the energy baseload capacity of Iloilo City and Panay Island.
Iloilo City Mayor Jerry Treñas said the city needs a stable supply of energy especially with the increasing power demand resulting from infrastructure and development projects.
The city has been suffering from intermittent power interruptions and investors have repeatedly pointed out that the city's unstable power supply remains a weak point in efforts to attract investments.
Electric supply to the city's 180 barangays is solely provided by PPC and distributed by the Panay Electric Company (Peco).
In an earlier interview, engineer Adrian Moncada, PPC assistant vice president, assured the safety of coal-fired power plants.
Proponents of the project have assured that the plant will comply with environmental laws and regulations. They have denied that it will cause health and environmental hazards saying the plant will utilize the Circulating Fluidized Bed Combustion (CFBC) which they say limits emissions within the internationally accepted levels and the Clean Air Act.
But Greenpeace-Philippines belied these claims.
"The so-called 'clean coal' power plant proposed in Iloilo is a joke. There is no such thing as clean coal, just as there's no such thing as cheap coal," Jasper Inventor, Greenpeace-Philippines climate and energy campaigner, said in a statement sent to the INQUIRER.
Inventor said the CFBC only move pollutants from one waste stream to another and is ultimately released into the environment.
"Coal-fired power plants are also the most carbon intensive among fossil fuels making it the biggest culprit for global warming. It also emits hazardous toxic chemicals, among them mercury, one of the most toxic neurotoxins known to man," said Inventor.
He warned that a 100-mw coal-fired plant could cost damages to human lives, health, livelihood, crops, environment and carbon dioxide emissions reaching from P1 billion to P3.6 billion annually. "This is an unacceptable and unjustifiable burden to the people of Iloilo," he said.
Green Forum-Western Visayas accused GBPC and PPC of "misleading the Ilonggos" in describing their proposed coal-fired power plant as "clean-coal" technology.
Green Forum coordinator Melvin Purzuelo said the proposed project "should be scrutinized carefully in the light of our experiences with their corporate maneuverings and the health, pollution and climate impacts."
Msgr. Meliton Oso, social action director of the Jaro Archdiocese, said the Church is standing by a pastoral letter issued by two archbishops and six bishops in Western Visayas in 2005 opposing the construction of coal plants anywhere in the region.
The prelates, led by Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines president and Jaro Archbishop Angel Lagdameo, had said that coal plants "though the cheapest are also the dirtiest of possible sources of (power)."
Instead of the coal-fired plants, the bishops are pushing for the utilization of renewable sources of energy like wind, solar, water and geothermal.
The Affiliated Non-conventional Energy Centers based in Central Philippine University (ANEC-CPU) said Panay Island is "endowed with abundant renewable energy resources such as hydro, wind, biomass and solar."
This includes a potential of 4,000 mw for wind energy, 300 mw for hydro energy, 500 mw for biomass energy and 5,000 mw for solar energy, according to data from the ANEC-CPU.
Lagdameo had called on President Macapagal-Arroyo and other government officials to stop plans of putting up coal-fired plants in Iloilo.
Treñas said they are open to projects on renewable sources of energy but he said there has been no proposal from investors for power plants except for the putting up of coal plants. The mayor has created a 10-member task force that will study the proposal and submit recommendations.