SUBIC BAY FREEPORT CHAMBER OF COMMERCE (SBFCC)
Click to sign petition: www.ipetitions.com/notocoal
POSITION PAPER ON COAL-FIRED PLANT
May 14, 2008 Dir. Julian Amador Director for Environmental Management Bureau Department of Environment and Natural Resources Visayas Avenue Quezon City Dear Mr. Amador: Further to the recently held EMB Public Hearing on the Proposed Coal-Fired Power Plant held May 7th 2008 at the Cawag Proper Elementary School in Cawag, Municipality of Subic, Zambales, we hereby submit our formal position paper. The proposed Redondo Peninsula Energy coal-fired power plant on Redondo Peninsula should be seen to be a great opportunity; unfortunately not the advertised opportunity to provide jobs for people or power to the region, for it will do neither. It is too small. It will be the final step in the degradation of Subic Bay, reducing the potential to attract tourists, and it will pollute the air, the land and the water removing key ingredients in Subic Bay’s prime assets – the clean air, clean water and the proximity to nature. It will take away more jobs than it will provide and it will contribute to global warming, local environmental pollution and the reduction of the biodiversity in a global “hot-spot”. The only official beneficiaries will be Hanjin and a handful of investors in the Subic Gateway Park, who will get power a few percent cheaper than currently assessed. The Bay will never recover. What then is this great opportunity? The opportunity is for the DENR administration to take the lead and re-classify its priorities. Development at the price of the environment is not the best for the country or the world in the long term. It may not even be better in the short term. The opportunity is for the Administration to be evangelical about placing the environment first and then making development fall into place round its requirements. There is room for both with a little care and some smart thinking. Lead the movement towards a sustainable future, rather than follow with antiquated technology and cheap cast-off solutions. One day it will have to be done. Why not make a mark in history and do it now? We the residents, employees and members of communities around Subic Bay believe that the operation of this coal-fired power plant will pollute and destroy Subic Bay and deprive us of our right to a clean environment. We believe that it will contaminate the air, the land, and the waters of Subic Bay, thereby causing plants and animals in the forest and marine environment to die. We also believe that it will seriously reduce the attractiveness of Subic Bay for tourism and other business development. In lieu of this coal-fired power plant, we would rather encourage you to look into the possibility of establishing a bio-fuel fed power plant. There are thousands of hectares of denuded areas at the Redondo Peninsula which can be planted to Jethropa and other bio-fuel sources. A project such as this would be more environmentally sound – a win-win formula. We hope and pray that DENR will seriously lead this campaign for clean air in Subic Bay. We ourselves intend to remain vigilant in protecting the environment where our businesses and families reside, and we intend to hold those charged with environmental protection and management, accountable for the degradation of the environment, should that occur. Thank you for your kind and considerate attention to our urgent concerns. We look forward working with you for the common good of the Subic Bay area and the Philippines. Sincerely yours, JOHN E. CORCORAN SBFCC President President and CEO, Ocean Adventure and Camayan Beach Resort ROSE B. BALDEO SBFCC Vice President President and CEO, Global Terminals and Development, Inc. Global Ship Management & Marine Services Inc. PETER R. TUMANDA SBFCC Corporate Secretary President, Zen Step Professional Management Corp. RASHEDUL CHOWDHURY SBFCC Director Vice President for Operations D-J Aerospace, Inc. STEVEN J. HAUCH SBFCC Treasurer Vice President and Country Director, Corporate Air, Inc. DANNY PIANO SBFCC Director President and CEO, Absolute Service, Inc.
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