Hypocrisy of the highest order

By Engr. Edgar Mana-ay

Last February 21, 2020, the Sangguniang Panlalawigan of the province of Antique approved a resolution authored by Board Member Dimamay banning the construction of a coal-fired power plant at any place in the province. It appears that members of Antique Sangguniang Bayan are as innocent as a newborn babe when it comes to coal fired power plants despite their “lofty, high salaried, and honorable” position in government.

Don’t they know that there is an old model of a 5-megawatt (MW) coal fired power plant operating in Semirara Island SINCE 1995 by Consunji’s Semirara Coal Corporation. The reason for the tremendous progress of the island, even faster than the province capital San Jose, is sufficient and cheap power available 24 hours, 7 days a week. Electric power is always the starting point of any industrial, commercial, and residential boom of any locality, and Semirara Island is no exception. And to think that the 5MW coal fired power plant of the island is not even the latest Fluidized Bed Type but an older model of Pulverized Coal (PC) system, supposed to be more pollutive than the modern Fluidized Type that Global Business Power Corporation’s (GBPC) 314-MW power plant is using at Ingore, La Paz, Iloilo City.

It is also an established fact that the ENTIRE electric power supply of 60 MW for the province of Antique is SUPPLIED by coal-fired power plants in Iloilo! If the Board Members believe in their crusade that coal is harmful to human health and the environment, their resolution should be for STOPPING the purchase of electric power produced by coal plants. They should NOW shift to solar and wind for power source to be consistent with their stand for clean energy that is not harmful to man and the environment. But as it is now, they are more hypocrite than the Pharisees during Jesus’s time. Okay lang if you all die due to the harmful effects of coal, just continue producing the power that we need! Isn’t this the highest form of hypocrisy or just plain stupidity and ignorance?

If my memory serves me right, it was also then Antique Governor Sally Perez who vigorously opposed the operation of GBPC coal fired power plant in 2008 for the stupid and foolish reason that many Antiqueños are students and workers in Iloilo City, hence their state of health will be adversely affected. Her sudden intense love for her constituents residing in Iloilo is more than meets the eye. Sally Perez later kept quiet for whatever reasons that was considered. Will this be the same reasons that the present crop of Antique politicians, as orchestrated by now Antique Congresswoman Loren Legarda, are making a noise against coal fired power plant? Your guess is as good as mine.

There were many reasons, motherhood statements, and justifications indicated in the Dimamay resolution. Let’s enumerate all of them before we proceed to my rebuttal.

Reasons indicated in the resolutions are: “Harmful effects of such plant, a policy to maintain a well-balanced projects that are environmentally friendly and sustainable. Burning coal releases mercury, lead, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, particulates and various other heavy metals that can cause asthma, and other breathing difficulties, brain damage, heart problems, cancer, and neurological disorder. Antique cannot ill afford destructive effects of coal on agriculture and fisheries such as thermal pollution, coal ash re-suspension and spillage to water bodies. Proliferation of new coal fired power plants will only contribute to our own destruction and will only go against our commitment to reduce emissions to ensure livable communities today and for the future. Our goal to reduce carbon emissions will be impossible if we will continue to allow construction and operation of additional coal fired power plants.”

This writer’s rebuttal are as follows:

1. Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in Panay is 45% from electric power plants (mostly coal) and 55% from moving vehicles and stationary engines (mostly gasoline, diesel and LPG). Both accounts for 95% of total Green House Gas (GHG) emission in the area. The balance of 5% is methane (CH4) from illegal garbage dumps (not the standard sanitary land fill) and other decaying matters scattered all around.

Emission control should start with smoke belching jeeps and trucks. Chimney from both the Iloilo City and Concepcion coal plants emits an invisible or transparent smoke just like a brand new car, (ferry travelers to Bacolod can see it), a sign of complete combustion and clean exhaust due to burning of pulverized coal while it floats in air (fluidized bed technology).

2. The issue of trace metals that clings on the coal fly ash was settled last 2004. Research published by Dr. Gierre of Purdue University, a copy of which provided to this writer, concluded that these trace metals are NOT a concern because they exist in micro and nano sizes and only a few lab in the world can measure it. This is primarily due to the origin of coal which is the remains of ancient plants and animals (organic) and not from molten magma or volcanics. Mercury concentration in the study is only 5 parts per billion (ppb), very much LOWER than mercury concentration in soil which is 20 parts per million (ppm). The electrostatic ash precipitator catches 99.9% ash from the plant exhaust as it goes out of the chimney.
3. Coal mining and the coal power plant in Semirara have NOT affected the agriculture and fishery in the surrounding areas. Antiques still supplies tremendous amounts of fruits, vegetable and fish to Iloilo. Go to Culasi port in late afternoons and witness the bountiful catch from the sea as small fishing boats arrives after a day of fishing.
4. So far there are no reports that the horrible diseases heralded in the SP resolution affected Ingore, La Paz, Iloilo City in the last 10 years. Hence, the announcement of these fearsome diseases related to coal power plants’ operation is rumor-mongering, fake news, and an irresponsible and ignorant legislative output.