Published
By Myrna M. Velasco
The Department of
Energy (DOE) is revisiting policies on the deployment of vehicles fueled with
auto-liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), primarily taxis, because of marked decline
on uptake of such alternative public transport system.
“There are now new
technologies that developed on LPG, so we want to revisit LPG for vehicles,”
Energy Secretary Alfonso G. Cusi has noted.
The government, he
indicated, will review this policy in consideration of three-pronged factors:
Cost implications on consumers; carbon emissions and the safety aspect.
The energy chief has
emphasized that there had been decline in the deployment of autoLPG vehicles because
of the downtrend in oil prices in the past years.
He stressed that such
will be re-assessed, as well as the escalating oil prices now, as the
government moves forward in rewriting the rules for LPG vehicles dispersal as a
mobility scheme for the Filipino public.
It was in 2010 when the
energy department had seen the massive scale rollout of autoLPG vehicles –
reaching 17,500 taxi units then being made available to traverse the country’s
various thoroughfares, primarily in Metro Manila.
Over the years,
however, that tended to be a dwindling number and had plummeted further when
oil prices hit rock bottom in 2014-2015.
As culled from DOE
data, auto LPG taxis had been trimmed to 9,957 fleets in 2014; then down
further to 9,718 in 2015 and even leaner at 8,415 units in 2016.
Even the number of
refilling stations had tailed off – that from 218 stations in 2014, it went
lower to 192 stations in 2015-2016; entailing then that some refilling networks
had closed shop.
“The availability of
efficient and new models of cars and taxis, lower gasoline prices and the
series of negative public perception on the health impact of LPG to commuters
and drivers have affected the interest of taxi-fleet operators to convert their
units to LPG,” the energy department said.
It had become a common
complaint that LPG fleets had a “smell not pleasing enough to riders”; and
safety issues are similarly being hurled against these taxi fleets.
Nevertheless, the DOE
asserted that it is “exerting all efforts within its mandate to make auto-LPG a
viable option for public transportation.”
Essentially, this will
form part of the public transport mode being advanced by the department, along
with electric and natural gas-fueled vehicles.
No comments:
Post a Comment