Clean energy and sustainability groups said on Monday, August 1, that unlocking renewables should be the priority of local government and stakeholders alike for the benefit of Negrosanon consumers and the environment.
Last week, San Carlos City Mayor Renato Gustilo challenged groups opposing the 300 MW liquefied natural gas project of San Miguel Corporation and calling to revoke the resolution of non-objection issued to it by the Sangguniang Panlalawagan (SP) 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.
“Mayor Gustilo is on point in saying that the electricity that powers our homes actually comes from coal plants outside Negros Island. That residents of San Carlos and the province have no choice but to rely on dirty energy is something which we have been lamenting about for long, and is precisely the problem that we are asking him to help address,” San Carlos Bishop Gerardo Alminaza said in a press release.
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, he said.
“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 Tanon Strait – to pollution and disturbance, as well as an intensifying climate crisis,” Alminaza, convenor of advocacy group REpower Negros, said.
Natural gas, more appropriately fossil gas, has been subjected to local and global scrutiny for negative impacts on the climate and environment. Being a fossil fuel, its extraction, transport, processing, and burning also emit high amounts of greenhouse gas emissions especially methane – a gas which traps heat in the atmosphere 80 times more effectively than CO2 over a 20-year period, the press release said.
Development of new LNG projects also risks disturbing marine life from shipping activities, destruction of marine and coastal ecosystems from construction, and risks of water, air, and land contamination, it added.
Alminaza and concerned groups have been opposing the SMC LNG projects and demanding a recall of the resolution of non-objection (RONO) from the Sangguniang Panlalawigan, which they said was “was prematurely and unjustly issued to the project”.*