High oil prices: Let’s rethink nuclear power

I was having lunch with my son-in-law Atty. Jennoh Tequillo and my daughter Fara at the Ayala Center when we felt the building moved by a small earthquake. We first thought that our table was wobbly, but looking at the next table which was empty confirmed the quake as the water in the glass shook. Thankfully no one panicked and caused any furor. That quake (I reckon it was a magnitude 2.0 in the Richter Scale) should be a reminder to our Building Inspectors to check out buildings that may not withstand an earthquake of a bigger magnitude.

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The prospect of a US$100 a barrel for crude oil is no longer a question of if, but when it would happen. Many pundits are already predicting that before December, this will become a reality. Gone are the days when a barrel of crude cost less than US$10! The law of supply and demand cannot be amended, changed or revoked. The more world economies experience growth and development, the more people would have to use more energy and gasoline to fuel cars. With no new oil fields being discovered and the more environmentalists stop research vessels looking for oil, we can expect higher world prices in gasoline or crude oil.

What can we do by ourselves? In the US many environmentally charged Americans are already embracing the idea of reducing their “carbon footprint”. By this, many of them have shunned the use of gas guzzling Sports Utility Vehicles (SUV) and have switched to small cars that use less fuel. In Europe, there is now a move to implement better rules for using bicycles or small motorcycles. Perhaps worse hit would be the power sector because the majority of power generators in this country are based on fossil fuel. Now is the time to look at other options available.

Talking about other options on the table regarding power plants, we learned in the news that a South Korean firm has opened exploratory talks with the government on the possibility of reactivating the mothballed Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP). That news report quoted Asia Business Department  Director General Kyong Goo Hur of Korea Electric Power Corp. (Kepco) who said that talks with the Philippine government on the proposal  to  reactivate  the  $2.3-billion  plant was still unofficial.

We remember the BNPP alright. This was closed down in 1987 without generating a single watt of electricity. This was one of the biggest financial problems that the Philippines faced as we literally threw billions of pesos for nothing. Yet we paid every centavo for that loan!

But with oil prices skyrocketing to record high, we have very little options left and I fully agree with the proposal to conduct a study on the feasibility of restarting the Bataan Nuclear plant or whether we should build a new one. With the Aboitiz Equities Ventures (AEV) heavily into power distribution and generation, perhaps we should also urge them to study the possibility of our country reentering the nuclear plant industry. They are the only ones we can trust in handling this very delicate operation. Mind you, the Philippines was ahead of most nations in nuclear energy. We lost that advantage when Pres. Cory Aquino scrapped the Bataan Nuclear plant in 1986.

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Ho-hum! Another impeachment complaint filed against Pres. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (GMA) by an opposition that knows no better how to run this country. Just looking at the photo of Iloilo Vice-Gov. Rolex Suplico handing over the impeachment documents to House Secretary Roberto Nazareno you can sense that hatred oozing out of his face.

This fella has really nothing better to do than look for ways and means to oust the President via any shortcut method, so they can take over the reins of government and do the exact same things that they are accusing the President of doing! What’s Suplico trying to do, break the Guinness Book of Records as to the highest number of people who filed impeachment cases against Presidents? 

I have disagreed and frowned on many things that Pres. Arroyo has done, the latest of which is her giving that Presidential Pardon to convicted plunderer former Pres. Joseph “Erap” Estrada, which I believe was done in undue haste. But this doesn’t constitute an impeachable offense. Not even that ZTE scandal, which hasn’t yet been proven to be directly linked to the President as the Senate investigations, like in all Senate investigations never came up with a resolution to this brouhaha.

If you ask me, this new impeachment case filed against the President only proves once and for all that the opposition is still in the minority in Congress. Sure they are a majority in the Senate, but it takes these two to tango before any impeachment proceedings can bear fruit.