SC urged: Compel DENR and DoE to review coal plants ‘proliferation’
A GROUP of environmental advocates and lawyers petitioned the Supreme Court (SC) yesterday to compel the Department of Energy (DoE) and Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to comply with a review om national air quality.
Petitioners, through its counsel Jose Manuel I. Diokno, filed a 64-pages petition for continuing mandamus to direct the DENR to “immediately review or revise ambient air quality guidelines values, emission standards for stationary sources, and effluent standards.”
The petitioners also asked the high court to compel the DoE to issue the Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS). The RPS, according to the DoE’s website, is a “market-based policy that requires distribution utilities and other industry participants to source a portion of their power supply from eligible renewable energy sources.”
The petitioners, who are residents of Bataan, Cebu and Palawan, said the DoE and DENR “have allowed coal plants to proliferate, making the country more, instead of less, dependent on fossil fuels.”
They added that the DENR failed “to administratively prosecute coal plants operating without the Continuous Emission Monitoring Systems (CEMS) and Continuous Emission Opacity Systems (COMS) as required by the Clean Air Act.” The petitioners further asked that the DENR be ordered to disclose the coal plant companies operating without CEMS and COMS.
The DoE, in turn, “neglected its duty under the Renewable Energy Act to formulate Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS) Rules and to establish the Green Energy Options Program,” the petitioners said.
The DoE, when sought for comment, said in a mobile message by Energy Undersecretary Felix William B. Fuentebella that Energy Secretary Alfonso G. Cusi has repeatedly emphasized the department’s mandate “to ensure the delivery of energy services to consumers.”
“Through his [Mr. Cusi’s] leadership, the DoE is looking at it from the consumers’ point of view. That is the reason why the DoE gives so much weight (to) the available data that will enable consumers and decision-makers to decide the direction it will take,” the agency added.
“In looking at the numbers to meet demand, the capabilities of these renewable energy technologies must still be complemented by the conventional technologies that include nuclear, coal, natural gas and diesel plants,” the agency also said.
The DoE said consumer needs remain their priority in “adopting a demand-driven and technology neutral policy and bases its decision on data.”
The DENR was also sought for comment but is yet to reply as of reporting. — Kristine Joy V. Patag
