Greenpeace backs protest vs Negros power plant plan

BACOLOD CITY — Negrenses have a choice between "clean" and "dirty" energy.

Thus said the international environmental activist group Greenpeace as it manifested here its support for the Negrenses’ campaign against a plan to build a 50-megawatt, coal-fired power plant in Pulupandan town, 31 kilometers south of this city.

Greenpeace installed yesterday four solar panels at the Our Lady of Lourdes Academy in Pulupandan to show the townsfolk that clean and renewable energy works.

Greenpeace members from different countries arrived here Saturday aboard MV Arctic Sunrise, now open for public viewing at the Bredco port until Wednesday.

Greenpeace said the journey of MV Arctic Sunrise, one of its campaign vessels, is part of its "Southeast Asia Choose Positive Energy Tour."

The group also spearheaded a "bike rally for clean energy" from Bacolod to Pulupandan, participated in by 250 bikers from the Negros Occidental Cyclists Federation.

Greenpeace and the Pulupandan-based Negrosanon Against the Coal-Fired Power Plant have been working closely since 2000 for the scrapping of the plan.