Planned power plants opposed

CEBU, Philippines — Climate advocates are calling on Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama and City of Naga Mayor Valdemar Chiong to cancel plans to construct liquefied natural gas (LNG) power plants in their cities and deny all permit application for fossil gas projects.

Tomorrow, concerned residents are expected to file their respective petitions to both city governments, as well as to relevant government agencies, to formalize their opposition against the construction of the LNG/fossil gas power plants in Cebu.

This is simultaneous with the filing of similar opposition in other areas like Navotas in Metro Manila, Rizal, La Union, Camarines Norte, Bataan, and Zamboanga City.

The Philippine Movement for Climate Justice (PMCJ) said, in a statement sent to The Freeman, that in September 2022, Rama announced the possibility of Terra Movers Development Corp., the local partner of US-based Westfield Resources, to build a 300-megawatt (MW) LNG power plant in the city.

“We are reminding Mayor Rama that one of the strong bases for the rejection of the proposed 300-MW coal power plant in Barangay Sawang Calero is the lack of social acceptability of the project,” said Lito Vasquez, Visayas public policy analyst of PMCJ.

Vasquez used to work at Cebu City Hall under the Committee on Environment when the City Council rejected the project in April 2016.

Vasquez also recalled that one medical doctor who testified during public hearings conducted in 2016 for the proposed coal plant of Ludo Power said that “not a single study would tell of any health and environmental benefit from a coal-fired thermal plant from its mining to combustion and waste disposal”.

Proposed plants in Naga

According to PMCJ, Aboitiz Power president and CEO Emmanuel Rubio announced in December 2022 that the company is eyeing in partnership with a Japanese firm JERA the development of a 150-MW LNG power plant to be located adjacent to its existing diesel-fired power facility in Naga.

Reportedly, the project is hoped to “to be delivered by 2026 or 2027.”

Back in March 2012, the Final Report of the Compliance Review Panel (CRP) of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), prepared in response to the complaint filed by Naga residents and partner communities of PMCJ opposed to the ADB funding and construction of the 200-MW KEPCO SPC Power plant, noted “that from 1999 to 2004, the leading cause of death (33%) in the project area reported by rural health units was pneumonia.”

PMCJ said that “mainly due to the air pollution from the continued operations of the SPC coal-fired power plants, the APO (CEMEX) Cement Plant, and fugitive emissions from quarrying activities and mobile sources, the report has shown that upper respiratory tract infections were prevalent among residents of barangays Colon, Pangdan, West Poblacion, and Inoburan from 2008-2009.”

 The said ADB report also indicated that both mortality and morbidity level were much higher than national averages.

Teody Navea, PMCJ Cebu Chapter convener, said that communities in Naga suffer from the existing operation of dirty energy facilities and other industries in the city.

According to Navea, air quality monitoring reports in Naga are not made accessible to communities and that in some instances the Multipartite Monitoring Team (MMT) required by the ECC is not formed.

“These violations of the people’s right to health and a healthy environment have long been present in the Visayan energy system. In Barangay South Poblacion, an MMT was not formed to monitor the emissions of an industrial flour milling company, a clear sign of negligence from the company and local regulators,” said Navea.

What is LNG power generation?

Liquefied natural gas-based (LNG) power generation is associated with elevated methane and nitrogen oxide emissions during the combustion process, Varquez explained.

These oxides of nitrogen accordingly are associated with a number of respiratory illnesses, such as asthma symptoms in children, chronic bronchitis, and increased susceptibility to respiratory infection. NOx and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that are emitted by gas plants can also combine with other compounds in the air to form PM2.5 and PM10.

Supported by the global medical community, among them the 2022 report of the Lancet Countdown on health and climate change entitled “Health at the Mercy of Fossil Fuels,”  PM2.5 inhalation is proven to cause the following health complications: lung cancer, heart disease, respiratory illness, and pre-term births.

PMCJ said that given the environmental risks of gas-based energy production and limited success in the implementation of ECCs in the province, energy development in the province must pivot away from fossil gas use and toward development of renewable sources of energy such as solar and wind.

Estela Patalinghug, Visayas area coordinator of the PMCJ and a resident of Naga, Cebu, said that adding new fossil fuel-based generating plants in Naga, such as the planned 150-MW LNG power plant of Aboitiz Power, exposes communities to greater health and environmental hazards in the face of still unresolved issues.

“We must face these challenges through the lens of climate science and community well-being, choosing people over profit. We are in dire need of a rethinking of the development path pursued in the city,” Patalinghug said.

The Freeman was still trying to get the sides of concerned companies and officials as of this writing. (FREEMAN)