Have we found our ‘pot of oil’?

I think the most interesting, relevant, and newsworthy news these last few weeks is the discovery of oil in Alegria, Cebu. Finding oil there now was a big success considering that so many have tried before and were unsuccessful and left empty handed. China International Petroleum Mining though took a chance and continued to look and was finally able to find oil in their Alegria Oil Field, which President Duterte inaugurated on May 19.

Though the discovery is certainly important of course the question remains that will this initial find lead to more oil? I certainly hope so. Everyone knows how desperately we need an oil reprieve at this point with prices rising to staggering new heights every day. In my previous column I wrote that it is affecting everything in the economy and that if we aren’t able to lower and/or stabilize oil prices soon, they will eventually drown us.

To try to pacify domestic oil prices, the Department of Energy (DoE) announced that the government owned Philippine National Oil Company (PNOC) is targeting to import 240 million liters of diesel through a government-to-government deal with Russia. While they are hoping that augmenting our country’s stockpiles will eventually have a positive impact on fuel prices the amount they are looking to import now is too small to make any real changes in the foreseeable future and will be acting more like a “buffer” to our current dangerously low supply.

While I think it is important for the government to help mitigate supply/demand problems it also seems futile without really addressing the root of the problem. In the Philippines, demand for oil and gas will always be high because of the way Filipinos consume fuel. There are far too many cars here stuck in far too much traffic wasting gas and polluting the environment on a daily basis. And how can we blame them? Public transportation is not reliable and extremely difficult. If we don’t find a way to fix this, things will never change and we’ll forever be scrambling to find oil.

What is most important for the Philippines right now (and for the world in general) is to find more ways to invest in sustainable energy and environmentally sound energy solutions. Part of the reason we are in the mess that we are in now is because we have been abusing the environment and our natural resources for so long that we’ve created a domino effect with an impact that we are all currently feeling. We can no longer just rely on the status quo and hope things work out in the end. We have to take steps and make changes.

Last week the president attended the inauguration and “soft opening” of the new joint venture coal fired power plant by Aboitiz Power Corp and TeaM Energy Corp. The 420-megawatt (MW) plant is expected to help boost electricity supply in Luzon. This comes at an opportune time when we could potentially be facing an electricity deficit. We have all experienced how much electricity prices have gone up but despite everyone paying more we are still unsure if the supply can meet the demand.

Just the other week Meralco put subscribers on “yellow” alert because they weren’t sure if they could continue to meet the staggering summer demand for power to run air conditions, refrigerators, freezers, and the like. Every summer the demand for electricity increases and it appears that this summer is even worse than the ones before it. It’s because of the unbelievable heat that not only makes appliances work harder but just beats down on everyone without reprieve.

I am hoping that with June coming in we will soon get some much-needed respite from the summer heat. Although that doesn’t look like it will be happening any time soon. Despite PAG-ASA declaring it officially the “start of rainy season” we have yet to see any real changes in the weather much less enough rain to make it feel like rainy season. While there have been spurts here and there it’s still brutally hot outside thanks to “El Nino” and climate change. We could be facing a lot more summer than we are used to and that will continue to affect electrical consumption and everybody’s general moods and well being.

This is again environmental degradation coming into play and reminding us that all of the damage we did to the planet is not going to go by without some form of payback. After all, we did not come to be in this position overnight. It took years of over population, pollution, and carelessness to bring us to this point. And now, climate change is raising the world’s temperature and causing a ripple effect that is being felt by everyone on the planet. In the Philippines it’s especially painful because we have such a huge population concentrated in such small areas. Simply put, if we don’t make changes it’s only a matter of time before our resources will no longer meet demand.

It’s the eleventh hour and I hope with these added investments to alternative power, geothermal, solar, and wind we can start to make some small changes in the way we produce and consume energy. But that won’t be enough. We all need to do our part and not just hope and pray that things are going to work out. All these good intentions without actions will amount to nothing. Even simple steps can make a difference like not using single use plastic, conserving water and electricity whenever possible, and doing our part to reduce our carbon footprint.

The task seems daunting to be sure but we can’t shrink away from the responsibility just because it’s hard. If we all take small steps those steps can amount to big ones and there’s a chance we can finally make some real change.