Philippines: Leftist lawmakers support Duterte's stance against use of nuclear energy

Philippines: Leftist lawmakers support Duterte's stance against use of
nuclear energy

Lawmakers belonging to the progressive Makabayan bloc in Congress have
expressed their support for President Rodrigo Duterte's stance against the
use of nuclear energy during his presidency. "This is good and one less of a
problem that would haunt Filipinos. The government should instead
concentrate more on renewable energy rather than dangerous sources of power
like the long mothballed Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP)," said Bayan Muna
Partylist Rep. Carlos Zarate in a statement on Thursday.

Zarate said tapping nuclear power poses grave dangers and issues ranging
from health, environment, economics, and nuclear contamination, which
clearly outweigh the benefits it may bring.

"Furthermore, the issues of health risks and environmental damage from
uranium mining, processing and transport, the risk of nuclear meltdown or
sabotage, and the problem of radioactive nuclear waste cannot just be set
aside or ignored," Zarate said.

The International Atomic Energy Agency had already ruled "that the BNPP
failed the safety location requirement as it is located near Natib Volcano
and is very near a fault line".

Zarate noted that nuclear power is neither a low-carbon electricity source
nor is it cheap, suggesting that the government tap more renewable sources
of energy and put an end to the privatization of the remaining state-owned
generation facilities.

"Scrapping the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA), which resulted to
us having the most expensive electric rates in Asia, is a must if we want to
be freed from the greed of the energy oligarchs," he added.

Meanwhile, another progressive solon, Gabriela Partylist Rep. Emmi De Jesus
came out in support of President Duterte's disapproval of nuclear energy and
proposed repealing of EPIRA to cut down power costs.

De Jesus explained that reversing the privatization of state power assets as
mandated by the EPIRA law can create a pro-consumer energy industry policy,
as collusion among independent power producers and the privatized power grid
will be obstructed and price manipulation will be put in check.

"Major hydroelectric and geothermal assets that used to belong to the
National Power Corporation should be re-nationalized, and future renewables
should be state-owned to create a more stable power grid," De Jesus added.

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Ref:
http://www.update.ph/2016/11/leftist-lawmakers-support-dutertes-stance-again
st-use-of-nuclear-energy/10699

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John Diecker
APT Consulting Group Co., Ltd.

www.aptthailand.com