CLEAN, SAFE … AND COAL?

No Siree! There can never be a CLEAN and SAFE coal-fired power plant anywhere in the world and our coal-fired power plant is no exception. The paid TV ads amounting to several million pesos in ABS-CBN of STEAG Coal-Fired Power Plant in Villanueva, Misamis Oriental is misleading. Not only that it is misleading, it is also deceitful and cleverly designed as a deodorizer.

The phrase “clean and safe coal-fired power plant” is contradictory in terms, a foul smelling oxymoron.

In the recent issue of Sierra, a magazine distributed to Sierra Club members, a worldwide group of environmentalists, it declared that, “Despite the industry’s hype, there’s no such thing as clean coal (power plant)”.

In the United States alone, though coal-fired power plants generate more than half of the electricity and about 22% of the energy produced, it contributes to the 36% of the over-all release of carbon dioxide, the main culprit in global warming. How could that ever be clean?

The article entitled “Can Coal Be Clean?” authored by Marilyn Berlin Snell in Sierra also stated that coal-fired power plant in the United States contributes to twenty-four thousand (24,000) premature deaths a year. How could that ever be safe?

The TV ads of STEAG also claims EFFICIENCY, but it did not show us how. It’s a despicably barren claim. If STEAG shows us that they are operating in an Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC), then we might be convinced of its efficiency.

In such a system, “crushed coal is mixed with oxygen and water in high-pressure gasifier to make ‘syngas”, a combustible fuel that produces extremely low emissions of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, mercury, and particulates. In contrast to the pulverized-coal technologies, the IGCC method uses less water, generates less solid waste, and can concentrate carbon dioxide emissions, making carbon dioxide easier to capture and store”.

Apparently, the STEAG plant in Villanueva is not among the IGCC power plants. Moreover, I have not heard of any claims from STEAG officers that they are in the process of “carbon dioxide capture and storage”, a system where the plant would find ways “to corral the carbon dioxide emitted by the coal industry, transport it, and ‘sequester’ it deep in the ocean, underground coal seams, or saline reservoirs”.

This process would drastically reduce the carbon emissions but would necessarily raise the cost of coal power. Thus, this leads us to the challenge posed by Task Force Macajalar Spokeperson, Bencyrus Ellorin.

After a long conversation with Banker-Economist, Sixto Roxas, they came up with the big challenge to the owner-operator of Coal-Fired Power Plant to secure the lives and limbs of the residents of the nearby places, including the environment by securing an insurance policy from a reputable insurance company like the Lloyds of London.

With such procurement of insurance policy, the community will be assured that STEAG is really looking at their welfare. Besides, STEAG has been boasting that it is spending Thirty Million Pesos in community development projects if only to appease the community that it is really taking care of them and the environment. With a reputable insurance company assessing future risk, people’s health and the ecology and thereafter, paying the premium, the community will lay assure that they are in good hands. Yet, I doubt if STEAG will readily stand up to the challenge.

Nevertheless, it is about time for our government especially those who kowtow with STEAG to start studying the taxing system for coal-fired power plants. Coal burning for energy generation imposes severe health and environmental costs that are not factored into the cost of producing electricity.

Government may well subsidize for such social costs. This had already been done in Norway and Sweden. The European Union, including Germany, is actually debating about the taxing system involving fossil-fuels, among them, coal.

STEAG State Power Inc. President Andreas Rubin may be partly right when he said, “We may not be able to change the world with this project but at least we can make a difference in the lives of the people who live near us”. But the change will surely be for the worse and the change in the world would be for the worsening of global warming.

The glaring fact remains that a coal-fired power plant can never be clean, safe and could hardly be efficient. It will only happen, according to Sierra, “when pigs fly”. In tagalog, “Pagputi ng uwak!”