PETITION
Nagmamahal, Meralco - Power for People Coalition
We, the undersigned, oppose the approval of the seven Power Supply Agreements (PSAs) currently pending before the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) inked between Meralco and seven coal plants.
If approved the seven PSAs will tie down electric consumers to a 20-year bondage to electricity sourced from dirty coal plants – an identified health and environmental hazards owing to deadly and pollutive emissions and by-products such as particulate matter, sulfur dioxide, carcinogenic metals, carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxide, to name a few.
If approved, 6 new coal plants will hog the horizon adding to the existing 26 coal plant projects. This would mean backtracking on the country’s commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 70% as our national contribution in the global effort to address climate change. Far from it, about 70 percent of power projects to go online in 2019 will be from coal. This means that by 2021, coal will supply at least 50 percent of our energy needs.
The lifetime of these contracts would restrict the entry of renewable energy options which are not only proven to be cleaner alternatives to coal but are now offering competitive rates, thus, potentially affording electric consumers cheaper electricity rates.
The seven contracts with a contracted power capacity amounting to 3,551 MW have been negotiated and entered into between Meralco and its generation companies without the benefit of public scrutiny even as Meralco has ownership stakes in at least six of the seven generation companies. For example, MGen, Meralco’s own generation company wholly owns Atimonan One Energy which is now pushing for the construction of a 1,200 MW coal plant. Shutting out the public from these negotiations meant reducing electric consumers to mere spectators whose only role is to foot the bill of these contracts.