Environmentalist Legarda not against coal-fired plants

CEBU, Philippines - Vice presidential candidate and Senator Loren Legarda, an environment advocate, said that she is not against coal-fired power plants per se, considering that there are power plants that are adopting green technology.

Legarda, who was in Cebu yesterday, said that we have to look at the need for power especially here where power supply is very critical and dwindling.

Legarda said that she wants to visit the modern coal-fired power plants in Naga City before she can categorically say something about the said project.

Cebuano environmentalists have been rallying to stop the ongoing construction of the Kepco-Salcon Power Corporation power plants contending that coal-fired power plants are detrimental to the environment.

KSPC general counsel Guillermo Dabbay earlier said that the coal-fired plant and the accompanying coal ash containment facility are designed to meet Philippine and international environmental standards and should not be a cause for alarm.

Dabbay said that when they first came to Cebu to help address the looming power crisis, concern for the environment was already part of their commitment.

Dabbay added that at this point, the affordable technology that could provide Cebu with a reliable baseload of 200 megawatts for the next 10 to 20 years will rely on coal as a transitional energy source until the local economy is strong enough to afford renewable energy sources on a wide scale.

Dabbay had said that carbon dioxide mitigation and a low carbon economy also called for an accompanying corporate social responsibility program that focuses on reforestation and related sustainable development projects.

KSPC said that soon, the problem of rotating brownouts in Cebu will be a thing of the past when the two power plants begin supplying 200 megawatts of electric power.

They said the additional 200MW baseload from the KSPC plants will ease the present crisis experienced by Cebu and power the local economy into the next decades.

Recognizing the global call to mitigate the impact of coal plants on the environment, Dabbay explained that the two plants use the modern circulating fluidized bed combustion technology that eliminates the harmful emissions of sulfur oxides and nitrogen oxides. — Mitchelle L. Palaubsanon/BRP   (FREEMAN NEWS)