Statement - Wrong way

The Visayas wide power interruption recently, did not only disrupt our daily organized activities but also the way how we and the government deal with disaster-induced energy crisis. First, it highlighted the efficient capacity of energy agencies to blame parties instead of immediately addressing the restoration of energy in the province.

Second, it also showed how they concoct a myopic and dislocated solution to address the problem; such as creating more power generation to secure our supply independence.

The idea to push for the construction of more power generation in Cebu is the wrong solution to a pressing problem, because the incident is not about whether we have enough energy supply or the lack of it, but about how prepared we are in dealing with an unforeseen incident.

The statement tailored by lobbyists of the fossil fuel section in the energy industry is reeking with opportunism.

Constructing more power plants, is the same as hoarding more oil to arrest rising costs of fuel. It is interesting to note the irresponsible behavior of Salcon by opting for economic shutdown, supplying only 12 percent of the committed 204 MW capacity of their power plant.

The real solution to the debacle is for concerned offices, agencies, and business to shift to new fuel sources aside from coal to address future energy needs. There is now a need for local government to promote energy independence and efficiency through aggressive development of sustainable energy sources. Pushing for wrong solutions is going to be costly in terms of it's effect to local economy, tourism, food supply, health, and climate change related disaster.

If government offices will succumb to the hard-line lobbying of coal plants, we demand for them to raise and create separate funds for global warming related disasters due to emissions of green house gases from coal-fired power plants.

There is a need for a multi-partite body to evaluate and assess the real energy situation in the province and look into our capacity in dealing with disaster, and help in finding ways to develop renewable energy sources and extending the capacity of the Visayan Grid to integrate power from renewable energy sources.

Now is not the time to blame people and offices, it is the time for us to sit down and let other stakeholders have a say in the power planning process based on accountability, transparency, and participation.

Vince Cinches
Cebu Alliance for Renewable Energy