By Dominique Gabriel G. Bañaga

Diocese of San Carlos Bishop Gerardo Alminaza, along with several Negros-based environmental groups, held a press conference yesterday afternoon to express their continued opposition to the proposed 300-megawatt coal-fired power plant in San Carlos City.

According to Alminaza, the Catholic Church supports the protection of the common good and the common home, saying, “Progress can still be achieved [through] sustainable and climate-friendly means.”

The bishop also appealed to plant developer San Miguel Corporation Global to instead invest their capital in renewable energy.

He said, with San Carlos City recognized by the United Nations as one of the most liveable cities in the world and considered the energy hub of the Philippines, a coal plant would not only “stain” the city’s recognition but “pollute the commons” and “downturn community resilience.”

Alminaza called on the San Carlos City government and Negros Occidental provincial government to disapprove any proposal for a coal-fired power plant project.

Center for Energy, Ecology, and Development representative Arvin Buenaagua, meanwhile, said there is no such thing as “clean coal.”

“They say there is clean coal and that is the one that would be constructed in San Carlos,” he said. “Coal is never clean, why? Because it is burning fuel [and] that is the primary reason for climate change.”

Buenaagua added, coal is not cheap and it costs more to mine and burn than to setup wind and solar power plants.

In addition, he asserted the proposed coal plant will not bring development as it “has no room in the global market.”

“Rich countries are leaving coal one-by-one,” Buenaagua stated./DGB, WDJ