By Alena Mae S. Flores | Posted on August 30, 2012 | 12:01am
The Energy Department wants the government to declare all power generation plants as projects of national significance through an executive order or legislation.
Energy Undersecretary Josefina Asirit said the agency wanted all the power generation installations declared as projects of national significance, so they would not be affected by spot zoning ordinances of local government units.
“One of the things that the department has been working on is to engage in legislation that will consider energy projects, energy investments as projects of national significance because no matter where you locate a particular investment in energy, it doesn’t necessarily mean that only the local community will benefit from it,” Asirit said.
Asirit said this was one of the challenges facing the energy investors today because local government units had different policies and directions.
“The very nature of an energy project presupposes that it will redound to the benefit of the entire industry across the entire island,” she said.
Asirit said Malacanang could issue an executive order to implement the department’s proposal.
An existing executive order 72 signed by former President Fidel Ramos stated that unless otherwise declared by the National Economic and Development Authority board, all projects are considered locally-significant.
“It can be an executive order but for more permanence you would like to see it in legislation so that across any administration there can be more security of investment,” Asirit said. source
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