Group to oppose power firm expansion in Toledo

After massive protest actions against the expansion of Salcon Power Corporation's coal plant in Naga, Cebu Alliance for Renewable Energy will also block the proposed expansion of Mirant Global Corporation, the biggest independent power producer in the country, in Toledo City.

The group said that like Salcon, Mirant has bad track records for emitting poisonous elements that are detrimental to health and the environment.

Vince Cinches, CARE-Toledo coordinator, said that Mirant is emitting chemicals that are even more toxic than Salcon in Naga.

Mirant, the biggest independent power producer in the country, plans to add another 220-megawatt plant to expand its existing 75-megawatt plant in Toledo city.

Mirant Philippines Corp. and Global Business Holdings Inc. of the Metrobank Group will invest some $400 million or an estimated P22.4 billion in the next five years for the expansion program of Toledo Power Plant and Pagbilao Power Plant in Quezon.

Like Salcon, MGC's expansion is also expected to be finished and to be operational by 2008, in time for the projected power crisis in Cebu.

But Cinches said that aside from the fact that Cebu does not need additional capacity, people should look at the corporate background of Mirant, specifically its dismal environmental record in the United States and other parts of the globe. He cited the string of cases, which Mirant faced in the state of California for rigging electricity markets during the 2000-2001 energy crisis in California.

Locally, he said that data disclosed by the Toledo city health office on the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in the area, showed that upper respiratory illness caused most of deaths in the area, which is a concrete proof that the operation of coal-fired power plant in the locality is dangerous to people's well-being.

Greenpeace, an environmental group, also earlier reported that results of its tests on ash by-products taken from Mirant's coal power plants in Toledo city were found positive for mercury, a deadly neurotoxin, and arsenic, a carcinogen.

However, Mirant consistently denied the accusations against them, noting that their expansion is one of the solutions to the projected power crisis in the province.

The company claimed that all their power plants in the Philippines comply with, and exceed all pertinent environment rules and regulations such as the Philippine Clean Air Act, Department of Environment and Natural Resources, World Bank, and US Environment Protection Agency standards.

Tomorrow, CARE will sponsor a public presentation of the study on the operation of Mirant in the Philippines and other country to be presented by economist Maitet Diokno.

Representatives from the energy sector like the Department of Energy, Visayas Electric Company, MGC, Toledo City, among others are expected to attend.