Mikey turns green
The Renewable Energy Bill, granting tax and other economic incentives to investors in clean energy ventures, has passed the House of Representatives. This proposed law will, among other things, create a trust fund to finance the research and development (R & D) as well as the promotion of renewable energy projects in our country. It will bankroll a National Renewable Energy Program by financing R & D projects aimed at promoting the use of renewable energy systems, encouraging waste-to-energy technologies, among others.
This bill is among the administration-certified bills under the common legislative agenda forged between President Arroyo and leaders of the 14th Congress. House Bill 1958 was approved on second reading before the House adjourned sine die last month.
Presidential son Rep. Juan Miguel “Mikey” Arroyo of Pampanga has steered the speedy approval of the Renewable Energy bill at the largely pro-administration Lower House. Aside from being the sponsor of this proposed law as chairman of the House Committee on Energy, he is also a principal author of the Renewable Energy bill. If this bill gets through Congress, it will be Mikey’s first ever major law passed in his maiden term as Congressman.
For sure, eyes would turn green with envy, so to speak, as Mikey is now doing more serious work as a neophyte Congressman. I heard that the eldest son of President Arroyo is setting his eyes to run for higher office in the coming May 2010 elections as Senator. Better watch out this young man who obviously wants to make his own mark as a politician in the Arroyo political clan.
When the second regular sessions of the 14th Congress resumes later this month, Mikey needs to wake up his cabalen in the Upper House, Sen. Lito Lapid who happens to be the author of the Senate counterpart Renewable Energy bill, to help him move his pet bill for approval.
Luckily for Mikey, he does not need Lapid to do this task. He could very well count upon his namesake Senator Juan Miguel “Migz” Zubiri and fellow pro-administration Sen. Edgardo Angara to push the Senate’s counterpart bill. In the previous Congress, Migz pushed the passage into law of his pet bill, the Bio-Fuels Act of 2007. In his last term as Congressman, Migs pushed the approval into law of the Bio-Fuels Act of 2007 during the 13th Congress.
Bio-fuels or the so-called alternative fuels refer to feedstocks like jathropa, sugarcane, algae or seaweeds, and other agriculture crops where oil could be extracted. However, its implications to food security has placed the promotion of bio-fuels under serious review amid the rising incidence of food shortage that pushed prices higher here and abroad while at the same time world price of crude oil breached yesterday historic highs of $145 per barrel.
Without looking at any political colors, the approval by Congress of HB 1958 is a very urgent measure that our lawmakers should immediately work on amid the global energy crisis that we Filipinos are most hard-hit right now. This proposed measure seeks to achieve self-reliance in the country’s energy requirements through exploration, development, and utilization of renewable energy sources such as from solar, wind, hydro or water-based sources, even ocean currents and waves or hybrid energy systems, geothermal and other energy sources that can replete by itself or renew by its natural innate system.
If we can develop our own renewable energy system from these God-given abundance in our country, it would help address the high cost of fossil fuel that is fast paralyzing us here in the midst of the continued gasoline price increase these past few months now. We are, in fact, expecting another round of P1.50 per liter increase in the prices of gasoline and other oil refined products effective tomorrow. While we reel with global oil price hikes, we are also now being buffeted by devastating typhoons that have grown stronger and meaner which scientists blame to the severe effects of global warming and climate change.
The development of renewable energy therefore is important and is a necessity of global proportions. Projections by the Department of Energy indicate that from 2010 to 2011, the
If we closely examine our monthly electric bills, it is true that a large chunk of it comes from the item on generation charge. As actress Judy Ann “Juday”
According to Mikey, the proposed bill, once enacted, will promote power generation facilities with renewable energy sources whose facilities are capable of supplying electricity through the Main Grid or Transmission Systems under RA 9136 or the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA). This is meant to reduce dependence on imported crude oil and bunker fuel that run many of the power plants of the National Power Corp., including some of those already sold to the private sector. Aside from being cheaper, renewable energy sources are considered green fuel because they are environment-friendly unlike bunker and oil that contribute to deadly air pollution.
By the way, Mikey also co-chairs with Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago the Joint Congressional Oversight Committee on EPIRA that have started a review of the various proposals to amend this seven-year old law. For now, the priority, though, of Mikey is focused on the passage at the soonest possible time of the Renewable Energy bill that has been gaining groundswell support from various sectors.
Definitely, we must have this proposed Renewable Energy bill enacted if we are to have this green energy that will give us clean and cheaper energy sources. If Mikey needs to turn green like The Hulk, let him be the one to turn this green energy into reality!
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