news/updates
Unproductive kind of renewable energy
COMMONSENSE By Marichu A. Villanueva
Philippine Star
March 12, 2008
I was in the United States last week to cover the Washington International Renewable Energy Conference (WIREC) held in Washington D.C. In that forum, Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap presented the Philippine government programs to tap alternative energy and fuel sources that are safe and environment-friendly amid the stiff increase in crude oil prices in the global market that have reached as much as $108 per barrel as of yesterday.
When I returned to Manila , the “Big 3” oil firms announced their new round of 50 centavo per liter price increases in gasoline and diesel. Pump prices in the US averaged around $3.40 per gallon. Roughly, a gallon is about three liters. At an average of P41 to $1 prevailing foreign exchange rate here, the US gasoline price is equivalent to about P42 per liter compared to Philippine pump price at more than P44 per liter.
Although the US can produce their own crude oil products to meet their domestic consumption, the Americans are deep in their efforts to find alternative energy sources amid fears of depletion of such very expensive but less environment-friendly fossil fuel. The US government has been strongly pushing for the greater use of ethanol fuel blended with gasoline at a much higher combination from the present 10 percent to as much as 20 percent.
Blending ethanol — alcohol typically new, made from corn — into gasoline is a way to cut petroleum use. A 10 percent ethanol blend, called E10, now is standard at many gasoline pumps all over the US . But raising E10 to E20 would need US Environmental Protection Agency approval. American automakers also have doubts that E20 could be benign or not cause car engine troubles as E10.
Despite being dependent on imported crude oil, the Philippines has yet to make a dent on the use of ethanol blend gasoline as mandated by RA 9367 or the Bio-Fuels Law. This was signed into law by President Arroyo on Jan. 12, 2007 which launched the Philippines ' Bio-Fuels Program. As provided for by RA 9367, within two years from the law's effectivity, gasoline distributed shall be blended with bio-ethanol to the extent of five percent of its volume with the percentage increased to 10 percent in four year's time. The law also mandates a one percent bio-diesel engine fuels within three months from the law's effectivity with the blend increasing to two percent within two years.
Meanwhile, there are twin bills, both pending in Congress, that seek to aggressively pursue a government policy that requires the use of renewable or alternative energy. One of them is the Renewable Energy bill authored by Sen. Juan Miguel Zubiri, and the other is the Alternative Fuels authored by Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago.
In his address before the WIREC on March 5, Yap presented the bio-ethanol industry as being developed in the Philippines with his Department of Agriculture as the lead government agency. To date, Yap cited there are a total of 16 bio-ethanol projects being put up in various parts of the Philippines . When completed, the rated capacity of these projects, representing $500 million in investments, could produce as much as 567 million liters annually. Once on stream, Yap calculated, these 16 bio-ethanol plants could meet the country's requirements of about 537 million liters of bio-ethanol.
As per DA record, Yap claimed Filipino corn farmers are enjoying a 10 percent increase in income because of higher farm gate prices since last year. “Corn is enjoying such a resurgence, not so much as we are using it for bio-fuels, but for global corn's inability to answer for our local feed needs since it is being used elsewhere, as bio-ethanol,” Yap pointed out. Other than corn, Yap under the jurisdiction of the Agriculture Department.
This explained why the DA, through the Philippine Agricultural Development Corp. (PADC), sealed a $200 million worth of jathropa production contract with Abundant Biofuels Corp. (ABC), an American firm engaged in the business of production of alternative energy. The company, based in Monterey , California , will operate their jathropa production and refinery business through its subsidiary company, Bio-Fuels Philippines Inc.
The same American company had initially tried to work out their jathropa deal with the Philippine Forest Corp. (PFC), a government corporation under the Department of Environment and Natural Resources. The negotiation was started in December with erstwhile PFC president Rodolfo Noel Lozada Jr. who left it hanging when he decided to go out in a dramatic fashion to become the Senate's whistleblower on the alleged overpricing and kickbacks that went into the national broadband network (NBN) as awarded to ZTE Corp. of China .
I know I was really back home when I turned on the radio and television playing the same thing when I left a week ago — the telenovela of the Senate hearing on the NBN-ZTE scandal. This sizzling scandal has been the source of renewed energy among opponents of President Arroyo demanding for her resignation.
I've been out of the country for one week. But nothing has changed in the political scenario since I left. While I poured on past issues of newspapers, I was saddened to note that our country's politicians remain preoccupied with domestic politics. Everybody else in the world is focused on finding ways and means to look for alternative or renewable sources of energy to save the people from the prolonged effects of the crude oil crisis and the challenge of global climate change.
Pray, tell me, when will our Senators have the renewed energy to push for more productive legislative pursuits than entertaining us with telenovela hearings? The Lenten season is soon upon us. Perhaps, a spiritual retreat could do the trick to prick their conscience.
