Published
By Myrna M. Velasco
Having been apprised by
industry players that this could yield bigger cost reduction to
consumer-motorists, the Department of Energy (DOE) said it will be studying the
propounded scrapping of the biofuels mandate to fuel products.
Energy Undersecretary
Felix William B. Fuentebella said “we will have to study the legal implications
of it. We’ll have to assess because that might need legislative action.”
He emphasized that the
department will also be re-calculating the estimated cost reduction at the
petroleum pumps – just in case policy suspension is warranted.
Based on the numbers
crunched by the Independent Philippine Petroleum Companies Association, the
extent of discount that motorists may enjoy could reach as much as P1.80 to
P2.00 per liter.
The Biofuels Law
prescribes blending of coco methyl ester or biodiesel to diesel products; and
ethanol to gasoline. Current blends are at 2.0-percent by volume for diesel and
10-percent for gasoline.
Discarding biofuels
blend in petroleum products had been the counter-offer put forward by the oil
companies, instead of them allowing the industry to regress to lower quality
Euro-2 diesel.
Oil firms opined that
consumer savings will definitely be heftier with the biofuels ditch; compared
to the P0.28 to P0.30 per liter cost reduction estimated in the sale of Euro-2
fuel products.
The country’s
experiment with biofuels had not been much of a success – especially on the
ethanol sphere because the oil industry relied more on importation due to scant
domestic sources.
With that as a
backdrop, the overarching goal of supposedly creating value-added opportunities
for Filipino farmers had not also been achieved as targeted – and the policy
has in fact been stalled in the “food versus fuel” predicament.
In the long-term
Biofuels Roadmap cast by the DoE, the intent is to maintain current biodiesel
blend at 2.0-percent; and ethanol blend at 10-percent until year 2019.
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