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BY TIFFANY ANNE TAN and DARYL LASAFIN
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BACOLOD City – Gov. Alfredo Marañon Jr. is not keen on the reported plan of Global Business Power (GBP) to put up a coal plant in Negros Occidental.
“Coal is very dirty,” Marañon stressed.
But he would consider “if they (GBP) can present a very clean coal plant.”
“They have to put up pollution control [equipment], but the equipment is expensive,” said Marañon.
Climate change is the main reason that he is cool with the plan, the governor claimed.
“The biggest problem now is climate change. We have to do something about the climate,” Marañon said.
“If there are other alternatives, I would prefer [them],” he pointed out.
Marañon cited Japan, where he claimed coal-fired power plants are being closed down.
Green Alert Network is against the plan. “Not in our backyard,” it said in a statement.
The environmental group described coal-fired power plants as among the “irresponsible” and “dirtiest technologies.”
“We are facing disaster risk through climate change, and coal is one of the main contributors to climate change,” the group said.
It also called on Negrenses to be “watchful, mindful of our collective responsibility to do aggressive action in nurturing, caring and protecting our last remaining environmental frontier for the sake of our children [and] our children’s children.”
The group urged the provincial government to “push for (the use of) solar and wind (power) and say no to coal.”
PRO-COAL GUV
Marañon had never held back in expressing support for coal-fired power plants.
Past media reports quoted him as saying coal-fired plants are a long-term solution to power problems in Negros Occidental.
“We badly need that coal-fired plant as soon as possible, as power shortage is looming,” Marañon said in one newspaper report as he expressed support to a planned coal plant in Cadiz City.
In 2010, Marañon already met with GBP (also Global Business Power Corp.) about a plan to build a P20-billion 20-megawatt (MW) coal plant in Pulupandan town, an article on the website of the international environmental organization 350.org showed.
It was not clear how the plan and the apparent negotiation went.
At the time, Green Alert Negros also opposed the plan and criticized Marañon.
“It seems that the decision of Governor Marañon to push through with the coal-fired power plant of GBPC is shortsighted and based only on the fact that it’s a huge investment,” the article quoted the group’s Jun-jun Mojica as saying.
“He (Marañon) is also decided to put Negros in the map as one of the most backward provinces in the Philippines and the world [for] embracing [a] coal-fired power plant, [a technology] rejected by first world countries,” Mojica added.
COAL PLANT OPERATING SOON
A national newspaper reported in 2012 that Patrick Escalante, mayor of Cadiz City, cited Marañon’s support for coal plants as he pushed for the establishment of such facilities in his city.
Curiously, Negros Occidental is expected to have a fully operational coal-fired plant by the last quarter of 2018.
North Negros Energy Power Corp. is currently building a circulating fluidized bed combustion coal facility in Cadiz. The plant is expected to generate 150 to 300 MW and boost the Visayas grid supply.
A Thailand-based company will supply the power plant with at least 20,000,000 metric tons of coal for 25 years.
Marañon said the Cadiz coal plant will help the province “reach power independence” and open doors to major manufacturing investments.
“With reliable power supply, we expect Negros to import more than sugar in the near future,” he said in another newspaper report./PN
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