CEBU CITY – Environmental groups and advocates released a statement in opposition to the proposed 80-megawatt coal-fired power plant expansion by Meralco PowerGen Corporation (MGen) through its subsidiary Cebu Energy Development Corporation (CEDC), calling the expansion an ‘insult to paying electric consumers’ and the ‘cause of marine ecosystem collapse’ of the Tañon Strait.
The statement from Save Tañon Strait (STS) was released after a pronouncement from Meralco Power Generation (MGen) to expand their major coal facilities was publicized: an additional 1,200-megawatt Atimonan plant in Quezon and an 80-megawatt Toledo project in Toledo, Cebu. These projects have also been deemed approved by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources by securing environmental compliance certificates despite the existing coal moratorium.
“Aboitiz’ Therma Visayas Inc. proposed coal expansion in Toledo was only the tip of the iceberg – this added threat of 80 MW expansion by MGen in the same city will further pedal Cebuanos’ lives backward. Both these fossil fuel companies are securing their planned expansion projects in full force, despite the existing coal moratorium and the climate imperative of no new fossil projects,” Center for Energy, Ecology, and Development executive director Gerry Arances said.
MGen president and CEO Emmanuel Rubio detailed the progress of their expansion in a media briefing, saying that the corporation has been ‘running the numbers’ to ensure their coal capacity’s competitiveness, eyeing to enter the competitive selection process as soon as it permits.
In the statement, groups from STS point to the coal industry in Toledo, Cebu as the main driver of health concerns among communities. Recent reports have revealed ‘never-healing skin diseases among children, accumulating coal dust inside households, numerous cracked and damaged walls from the coal plants’ vibrations’. According to communities in Toledo, these health concerns have long been ignored by their local government unit and their coal plant neighbors.
“The fossil fuel industry’s greed knows no remorse. They paid no heed to pleas for cooperation from these communities, only asking for a solution to the health crisis brought about by their coal plants, and now they plan to add another. Children are forced to leave their homes, away from their immediate family members, because of the risks of the existing projects. It continues to literally steal the lives of present and future generations,” Youth for Climate Hope co-founder Krishna Ariola said.
The CEDC’s Unit 4 location will be among the 3 other units in Toledo, situated near the Tañon Strait. According to the published statement, this addition to the already existing coal-fired power plants will ‘destroy Tañon Strait’s rich marine biodiversity’ and ‘deaths of the most vulnerable in Toledo, Cebu: children and the elderly, the immunocompromised, and the struggling fishing communities’.
“The disastrous impacts of these dirty energy projects will continue to widen the gap between the rich and the poor, with the latter bearing the unfair levels of climate devastation. We are in a critical time where the whole world needs to abandon fossil fuel altogether and prioritize cleaner alternatives, yet our country, the most vulnerable to climate impacts for 16 years now, welcomes more of this poison. We are talking about billions of dollars, in exchange for human lives. Meralco, where has your humanity gone?” Save Tañon Strait convenor Rev. Gerardo Alminaza said.
