Campaign vs coal-fired power plants pushed

DUMAGUETE CITY, Philippines – Campaigners for the protection and conservation of the environment are pushing for wider public support for the move to reduce or even halt the use of coal-fired power plants in the Philippines.

Dumaguete-based national organizers of 350.Org-Pilipinas, in a meeting recently, agreed to map out a campaign strategy starting this month through the end of October.

Trelly Marigza, a consultant of the international organization that has chapters in many countries, said the plan is to reach out to students at the secondary and tertiary levels to support the anti-coal campaign.

While the activities of the anti-coal campaign are still on the drawing board, the group has initially discussed holding a series of forums at the school level beginning on the last week of September, he said.

The group is also seeking to sound off a call for a class moratorium against coal-fired power plants especially with the Renewable Act of the Philippines in full swing as well as the availability of alternative energy sources, Marigza said.

The forum at the school campuses will focus on the ill effects of coal on health, energy and the environment, and attendant legal concerns.

Part of the group’s campaign would be to seek to stop the approval of more applications for coal power or minimize the operations of existing coal-fired power plants, while asking local power distribution utilities in Negros Oriental to stop purchasing power from these utility firms.

The Negros Oriental Electric Cooperatives I and II (NORECO I and II), as well as other electric cooperatives in the Visayas, are getting part of their power allocation from coal-fired power plants in Negros Occidental and the Korean Electric Power Company (KEPCO) in Cebu, Marigza said.

The upcoming anti-coal activities are part of this year’s worldwide Moving Planet campaign, which hopes to encourage nations to move away from the use of fossil fuel, she added. (FREEMAN)