Philippines: 'Make polluters pay'

Philippines: 'Make polluters pay'

The Philippine Solar Power Alliance (PSPA) supports the position of the
Department of Energy (DOE) to remove the burden of cleaning the environment
from consumers by creating a climate change fund paid for through a carbon
tax imposed on heavy polluters such as coal-fired electricity generating
plants.

Reacting to the declaration of Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi that he is
reluctant to implement another feed-in tariff (FiT) program that is funded
by a customer surcharge, PSPA declared it will work with DOE and Congress in
developing a climate change fund that will not only finance the FiT
allowance but will also cover health programs in areas near coal power
plants as well as finance disaster-mitigation programs.

PSPA President Tetchi Capellan said on Wednesday, "The RE Law didn't
prescribe the FiT-All as a pass-through to the consumers."

The intention of the law, explained Capellan, "Is not to burden the people
but encourage the development of clean energy by providing attractive
incentives. Currently, the installed capacity of solar power in the
Philippines is almost 1 gigawatt. With the dramatic drop in module prices,
solar will be at grid parity in the next six years and incentives will
become irrelevant."

In 2008, the government included the FiT in the Renewable Energy (RE) Law in
order to attain energy security and mitigate climate change. This non-fiscal
incentive provision granted to implementors of clean energy projects
guarantees the payment of the price difference between wholesale electricity
market and the FiT. At present, the price gap called the RE Charge is
approved by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC). It amounts to P0.12 per
kilowatt-hour (kWh) and is charged universally to consumers.

PSPA stressed that polluters ought to pay for environment cleanup. "Coal
power plants must be responsible for addressing the health issues as well as
national disasters affecting the population due to climate changes," the
group said.

Countries like India, Canada, and Australia already levy a carbon tax on
heavy emitters. In India for example, the clean energy tax levied on coal
power plants raised as much as 25 billion rupees ($535 million) in one year
alone. This money helped finance health and renewable energy initiatives.

In the interim, however, PSPA declared in the position paper that, "Industry
is prepared to work with government in raising funds that will keep the
momentum of RE development in the next six years of the Duterte
administration."

PSPA said it believes some kind of mechanism can un-burden the consumers and
solve the problem of funding the renewable energy program of the government
as prescribed by the RE Law. The levy would effectively shift the burden of
cleaning the environment from the consumers to the polluters. It would also
encourage coal power plant owners to re-direct the taxes and invest instead
in clean energy projects in order to balance the pollution created by coal
power plants.

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Link to Original Article:
http://www.energycentral.com/news/make-polluters-pay?did=39207012&utm_source
=2016_11_09&utm_medium=eNL&utm_content=71965&utm_campaign=DAILY_NEWS

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John Diecker
APT Consulting Group Co., Ltd.

www.aptthailand.com