Davao's Great Leap Backward

This news simply passed me by. I only knew about it recently when someone dropped this during a conversation. 

From a link:

MANILA, Philippines - Listed Aboitiz Power Corp. (APC) has obtained go signal from the Davao City government to proceed with its 300-megawatt (MW) coal-fired power plant.

In a statement, APC said the Davao City Council issued a resolution, endorsing the P25-billion circulating fluidized bed combustion coal-fired power project of its wholly-owned subsidiary Therma South Inc. on June 7.

Vice mayor and council presiding officer Rodrigo Duterte said the move was in line with a goal to boost power supply in the city.

"We need power for the city. We want this plant inside Davao so we will have control and jurisdiction over it," he said.


Government estimates earlier showed that unless power generation is increased in Mindanao, the region will soon face a shortage. By 2014, the shortage will be around 480 MW—enough to cut the entire power supply of the cities of Davao, Cagayan de Oro, General Santos, Zamboanga and Butuan.

APC assured that its coal plant would provide long-term solution to the power problem, and that the plant would be safe to operate.

APC said Therma South will utilize clean coal technology to reduce harmful emissions to the environment.

Actually, I don't have anything else to say.  I'm sad. I'm frustrated. In this time when all the first-world countries are looking at utilizing renewable energy to address their energy issues, here we are going back to conventional sources to solve our problems.

Make no mistake. I am fully aware that the energy crisis is real. Power shortages will continue to worsen as the deficit grows bigger. But a coal plant is still a coal plant. I don't have to enumerate the disadvantages of having one near Davao City. It's enough that I say that a coal plant is not a good thing to have in this city's future.

What struck me the most about this whole episode is the shortsightedness of our leaders, the sheer lack of imagination among their ranks. True, the coal plant can address the problem immediately and conveniently. But it does so at a cost that this city cannot afford later on.

It also struck me how the opportunity offered by the moment was never seized. The energy crisis could have galvanized a concerted effort among different sectors to search for alternative sources of energy. It could have been a catalyst to jump-start a more widespread transformation of Mindanao's grid. But we have settled for the easier solution, the mediocre one: "Why not simply build a coal plant instead? Besides, is there anything else that we can do?"

Just want to add something to this post:

From this link:

Councilor Pilar Braga, chair of the City Council committee on energy, transportation, and communication, said as far as she knows, Aboitiz has all the legal right to start with the plant construction.

"Wala nakoy labot ato kay nahuman naman ang among trabaho ato (I do not have any information about it because we were done with our job)," Braga said.

I shudder at what she just said (the translation is clearly off though). Pilate, is that you washing your hands?