DENR to review environment clearance of Iloilo coal plant
MANILA, Philippines – Environment Secretary Lito Atienza on Friday said he will order a review of the environmental compliance certificate (ECC) that was supposed to be issued for the operation of a coal plant in Iloilo City.
Atienza made the announcement after holding a meeting with representatives of the environment group Greenpeace.
“I will review whatever processes that have been followed in this particular issue that you’re taking up,” Atienza said.
Greenpeace on Thursday dumped bags of charcoal at the Environment office’s gate to dramatize the group’s opposition to the building of a coal-fired power plant in Iloilo.
Greenpeace’s Jasper Inventor said coal is “the dirtiest, most carbon-intensive of all fossil fuels’’ and as such is a major contributor to climate change. Coal emits toxic gases when burned, which could pose a risk to people’s health, he added.
Greenpeace opposed the construction of a 165 MW coal-fired plant in Iloilo. “At present there is an oversupply of 85 MW on Panay Island and Guimaras. In the future, there will be an additional oversupply from submarine cables linking Panay Island and Negros,’’ Inventor said.
“I am with you with regards to our environmental concerns, but we also have to consider the other interests of the nation,” Atienza told Greenpeace activists.
He said: “If the coal plant is going to be providing energy, and if there are demands for it by the national economy and by the people, I cannot take a position very similar to yours.”
Atienza, however, urged Greenpeace to help the DENR “by pointing out the negative aspects of using coal.”
“We cannot afford to be railroaded into using coal as a source of energy when it may pose a threat to our communities,’’ he said. (D’Jay Lazaro/ GMANews.TV/18 April 2008)
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