Biofuels Act not only intended for sugar industry, group says
MANILA – A group of small players in oil industry said that the Biofuels Act of 2007, which decrees the addition of a percentage of ethanol in local fuel products such as gasoline and diesel, is not solely meant to boost the country’s sugar industry.
This was the reminder of the Independent Philippine Petroleum Companies Association, a group of small oil players, to the Ethanol Producers Association of the Philippines, the Philippine News Agency said in a report.
IPPCA Chairman Fernando Martinez said the Bio-Fuels Act also known as Republic Act 9637 – was not passed solely to benefit the sugar industry but was intended to “develop and utilize indigenous and renewable clean energy sources to reduce dependence on imported fuels.”
“This means that other feedstock for ethanol can be used just like cassava, which in turn will not be as expensive as that of sugar,” said Martinez, who also said that EPAP should think of increasing their own production.
Figures provided by EPAP show that only 80 million liters of local ethanol will be produced this year by San Carlos Bioenergy Inc. and Roxol Energy Inc. Another 50 million liters will be supplied by Green Futures Inc. when its commercial operations begin in 2011.
Martinez said that oil players, especially the independent companies, support the move to increase the ethanol blend to 10 percent by 2011 provided that the government would also provide them an easier method to import the much-needed products.
But Martinez reckoned that the local industry “needs time to catch up before it can be competitive.”
“We should therefore give it some time for the alternative feedstock like the cassava plantations to begin operating in a couple of years and by then, the oil companies will naturally purchase the product locally,” he said.
