Close Negros power plant for good

BACOLOD CITY, Philippines — Environmentalist groups and members of the Catholic Church called on President Benigno Aquino III to order a permanent shutdown of the P8-billion geothermal power plant of Energy Development Corp. (EDC) in Negros Occidental.

The Save Mt. Kanlaon Coalition (SMKC), the Negros Environment Watch (NEW) and members of the clergy are calling on the president and other top government officials to close EDC's Northern Negros Geothermal Power Plant (NNGPP) in Brgy. Mailum Bago City and "return the Mt. Kanlaon Natural Park (MKNP) to the people."

EDC earlier announce that it will again shut down temporarily the operations of NNGPP starting first week of July until December this year to conduct further technical studies for its geothermal resources. In November last year, NNGPP was shut down for the same reason, but reoperated last April.

EDC, formerly Philippine National Oil Company-Energy Development Corp. (PNOC-EDC), has since been purchased by the Lopez-owned First Gen. NNGPP was originally envisioned to produce 49 megawatts (MW) of geothermal power, but presently, it only produces 8 to 9 MW which they sell to the Iloilo Electric Cooperative 1, said Dwight Maxino, vice president for steam field operations of EDC's Northern Negros geothermal project.

Environmentalists fear that with EDC's failure to generate enough geothermal steam to meet its 49 megawatts target, it would further encroach into the MKNP buffer zone thereby destroying the rich biodiversity in the area. In their position paper, the SMKC and NEW said EDC has yet to sell even just one percent of its electricity to Negros.

Provincial Board Member Emilio Yulo III earlier said based on the memorandum of agreement (MOA) between the Negros Occidental provincial government and the EDC, one of the basic contentions in allowing PNOC-EDC to operate NNGPP was supposed to produce cheap power for the people of Negros.

"Their original commitment was 49 megawatts. It was brought down to 21 megawatts, we can settle for 21 megawatts, but the problem is it's almost six months before the supposed (end of agreement on) 2011 and they are only producing at its peak 9 megawatts," he said.

The environmentalist groups said they were appalled that such geothermal project has cut down thousands of endangered forest trees, destroyed and dislocated countless wild flora and fauna, contaminated with toxic effluents upland waterways, and permanently altered the landscape and territorial boundaries of the MKNP.

They appealed to Aquino to order his energy and environment secretaries to put a stop to the operations of the NNGPP, then asked Negros Occidental Governor Alfredo Maranon Jr. and the PB to abrogate their MOA with PNOC-EDC by citing appropriate violations, and for members of Congress, especially those from Negros Occidental, to amend Republic Act 9154 or the MKNP Law.

Maranon Jr. on Thursday said he will order an investigation on the current drilling activities in NNGPP to see whether or not EDC has encroached into the buffer zone of the Kanlaon park, but assured the people: "It's not possible that we go beyond our boundaries. We will not go beyond the buffer zone based on the law." (FREEMAN)