Posted on August 17, 2016
EVEN as it
has yet to release results of its nationwide mining audit, the Department of
Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) is training its sights next on the
country’s biggest power source -- coal-fired plants that account for about a
third of total capacity -- and plans to start its review within the month, a
senior official said yesterday.
“We’ll start to audit coal-fired
power plants. Ginagawa lang namin ‘yung guidelines. Baka ngayong
month masimulan (We are just drafting the guidelines. The review may
start this month),” DENR Senior Undersecretary Leo L. Jasareno told reporters.
The audit, Mr. Jasareno said, will cover all coal-fired power projects in the country that already have environmental compliance certificates (ECC) -- 13 operational facilities and those of 12 others under construction that have this permit -- and will focus “on compliance with the ECC.”
A check with the Energy department’s Web site showed that coal-fired plants accounted for 31.5% of the country’s installed capacity and 34.2% of total dependable capacity as of end-December last year, with Luzon particularly dependent on that power source.
In comparison, oil-fueled and hydro plants each accounted for 19.3% of nationwide installed capacity; natural gas plants made up 15.3%; geothermal facilities, 10.3%; wind, 2.3%; biomass, 1.2%; while solar contributed just 0.9%.
DENR Secretary Regina Paz L. Lopez -- a staunch environmentalist whose family owns plants that run on natural gas, geothermal, wind, hydro and solar power -- has called for increasing the contribution of renewable energy sources, but Energy Secretary Alfonso G. Cusi said last month that the country “can’t just rely on renewables for now” and that coal was “a more dependable and a more reliable source... than renewables.”
The government crackdown on miners has already hit one of the country’s biggest power firms: Semirara Mining & Power Corp. that operates a mine on Semirara Island in Antique province from which it gets coal to run the 764-megawatt plant in Calaca Batangas that is operated by its subsidiary, SEM Calaca Power Corp.
Semirara disclosed yesterday that it has received DENR’s August 12 show-cause order directing it “to explain... within seven days from receipt thereof why its ECC... should not be cancelled” for one violation at its Molave Coal Mine Expansion Project, namely: “No proper stockpiling and disposal of the materials scooped out from the settling ponds... to avoid pollution of any water body and drainage systems, and maintaining them in safe and non-polluting conditions.”
The DENR has so far suspended 10 mining operations since the current audit began last month. There are 44 metal mines nationwide run by 37 companies.
Mr. Jasareno said that the country’s 65 non-metal mining companies will go through the same audit by next month. -- J. C. Lim
The audit, Mr. Jasareno said, will cover all coal-fired power projects in the country that already have environmental compliance certificates (ECC) -- 13 operational facilities and those of 12 others under construction that have this permit -- and will focus “on compliance with the ECC.”
A check with the Energy department’s Web site showed that coal-fired plants accounted for 31.5% of the country’s installed capacity and 34.2% of total dependable capacity as of end-December last year, with Luzon particularly dependent on that power source.
In comparison, oil-fueled and hydro plants each accounted for 19.3% of nationwide installed capacity; natural gas plants made up 15.3%; geothermal facilities, 10.3%; wind, 2.3%; biomass, 1.2%; while solar contributed just 0.9%.
DENR Secretary Regina Paz L. Lopez -- a staunch environmentalist whose family owns plants that run on natural gas, geothermal, wind, hydro and solar power -- has called for increasing the contribution of renewable energy sources, but Energy Secretary Alfonso G. Cusi said last month that the country “can’t just rely on renewables for now” and that coal was “a more dependable and a more reliable source... than renewables.”
The government crackdown on miners has already hit one of the country’s biggest power firms: Semirara Mining & Power Corp. that operates a mine on Semirara Island in Antique province from which it gets coal to run the 764-megawatt plant in Calaca Batangas that is operated by its subsidiary, SEM Calaca Power Corp.
Semirara disclosed yesterday that it has received DENR’s August 12 show-cause order directing it “to explain... within seven days from receipt thereof why its ECC... should not be cancelled” for one violation at its Molave Coal Mine Expansion Project, namely: “No proper stockpiling and disposal of the materials scooped out from the settling ponds... to avoid pollution of any water body and drainage systems, and maintaining them in safe and non-polluting conditions.”
The DENR has so far suspended 10 mining operations since the current audit began last month. There are 44 metal mines nationwide run by 37 companies.
Mr. Jasareno said that the country’s 65 non-metal mining companies will go through the same audit by next month. -- J. C. Lim
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