DENR softens up on coal plant approvals

Published December 6, 2016, 10:01 PM By Myrna M. Velasco

http://business.mb.com.ph/2016/12/06/denr-softens-up-on-coal-plant-approvals/

After giving them some sort of “tough love” by adding layers of approvals on to securing their environmental compliance certificates (ECCs), the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) has softened up on coal-fired power projects as manifested in its recently amended memorandum.

Instead of requiring coal-fired power projects to secure prior clearances from the Climate Change Commission (CCC) and the Office of Senator Loren Legarda being a condition to their ECC filing, the DENR just now requires them to furnish the specified offices with copies of their ECC applications.

In a memorandum-order dated November 16, 2016, the DENR stipulated that its Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) “is advised to furnish the CCC and the Senate Committee on Environment and Natural Resources of the applications for ECCs of coal-fired power projects.”

The requirement had been eased from previous mandate for the coal plant projects “to secure clearance” from the CCC and the office of Legarda, who was then chair of the Senate environment committee.

Such directive had prompted coal-fired power developers then to raise complaints against the added maze of red tape they would confront – which essentially can delay projects to the detriment of the country’s quest for immediate power supply stability.

The Department of Energy (DOE) took up the cudgels of resolving such policy uncertainty by recommending Presidential issuance of an Executive Order to primarily address project permitting overlaps.

As this developed, Legarda apprised Manila Bulletin that she “never asked the DENR to require companies putting up coal-fired power plants to obtain a clearance from her office.”

Her office noted that the lawmaker was actually “surprised to learn of the memo and called the attention of the DENR leadership regarding the matter during a Senate public hearing.”

That, it was noted, engendered DENR to retract said memorandum, while explaining to Legarda that “the original intention only was to ‘render due courtesy’ (to her) and inform her of such applications.”

Legarda’s office emphasized that “the Senate, as a legislative branch of government is separate from the Executive and does not perform executive functions such as the issuance of clearances.”