Senate urged to rush biofuels bill

The Senate was urged yesterday to rush the approval of the Bio-Fuels Bill in the wake of soaring world prices of crude oil and refined products.

The appeal was made by Bukidnon Rep. Juan Miguel Zubiri, principal author of the measure that seeks to promote the use of ethanol, a product that can be extracted from sugar cane, coconut and cassava and which can be mixed with gasoline.

Zubiri said there is urgent need to lessen the country’s dependence on imported fuel since prices of crude and finished products have been continually rising.

In fact, because of soaring prices, energy officials are projecting a weekly adjustment in local pump prices, he said.

He said there are at least a dozen investors awaiting the approval of the Bio-Fuels Bills "before investing billions of pesos for factories that would produce fuel out of plants."

"These players are just waiting in the wings and are ready to go in once the regulatory framework is in place," he added.

He identified six of the potential investors as Alcantara and Sons, Chemphil Group, Marubeni, Teves Group of Negros Oriental, NU3 Food based in La Carlota City, the Cobarrubias family, and the Passi, Iloilo consortium of sugar planters.

"In addition, a foreign group, two sugar centrals and two companies that would like to manufacture coconut-based bio-diesel, are also interested. What would nudge them to throw their hat into the ring is the approval by the Senate of the Bio-Fuels Bills and its eventual signing into law," said Zubiri.

He said the proposed law gives incentives to investors who will produce fuel substitutes for petroleum products.

Under the Zubiri bill, a tenth of national gasoline consumption would be replaced with ethanol within four years, starting with the mandatory blending of gasoline with five-percent ethanol.

"This will lead to annual foreign exchange savings of about P40 billion," said the Bukidnon lawmaker.

He said one "foreign development" that should prompt the Senate to rush the approval of his proposal is the United States-Iran row over the latter’s nuclear program, with the United Nations mulling an embargo against Iran.

"One in every four barrels of oil that we import comes from Iran. If there is an embargo against Iran, we will be having a hard time finding a substitute," he stressed.

He pointed out that the country has enough crops to sustain a bio-fuels industry.

"We have 2.4 million hectares of land planted to corn, 3.2 million hectares planted to coconut, 390,000 hectares to sugar cane, and 330,000 hectares to cassava and camote," Zubiri said.

"We must grow oil from our soil. The lambanog that causes drunk driving can run cars. Cassava is best not just as pie but petrol. And corn that can be made into a healthy breakfast can fuel cars," he stressed. — Jess Diaz