Business World
27-28/08/2004
By ELLEN P. RED, Correspondent
Technical experts from Japan noted that the project's environmental plan falls short of criteria set for modern coal-fired plants.
Power consumers of Cagayan de Oro City are hopeful that the coal-fired power plant project in the nearby town of Villanueva, would alleviate a foreseen supply shortage starting next year.
Local and foreign environmentalists, however, claimed that the project would pose a major hazard to ecosystems.
Technical experts from Japan noted that the project's environmental plan falls short of criteria set for modern coal-fired plants.
In a comparative study made by Friends of the Earth-Japan on projected emissions of the coal-fired power plant and three Japanese coal plants, it was noted that the project is not using the best technically available system to counter pollution effects.
It said that the sulfur oxides emission will be five times compared to Hekinan 1, a coal-fired plant in Aichi, Japan.
Hekinan 1 has the most advanced pollution control measure in Japan. The power plant is also projected to have eight times higher nitrogen oxide emission compared to Hekinan 1, the study added.
The Mindanao project, Friends of the Earth-Japan said, is even more pollutant than the Nakoso 7 coal-fired power plant in Fukushima, Japan, which was established in the 1970s.
Environmental watchdog Greenpeace, in another report, said coal-fired power stations are dirty and dangerous sources of electricity.
"Besides being extremely dirty, the burning of coal is an industrial process that creates huge quantities of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas causing global warming."
In August 2001, Greenpeace issued a report detailing the mercury emission of coal plants.
Evidence was provided by fly ash samples taken from the 600-megawatt coal-fired power plant in Calaca, Batangas.
Mercury was detected in at least four fly ash samples that Greenpeace sent for testing to a commercial laboratory.
Mercury is a lethal neurotoxin that it only takes 1/70th of a teaspoon to contaminate a 10.11-hectare lake, to the point that fish caught in the lake are considered unfit for human consumption, Greenpeace claimed.
Kim Gargar, spokesman of the People's Campaign Against the Mindanao Coal-Fired Power Plant, said, "The dangers posed by gas emissions and other toxic wastes to human health are enough reasons to junk the multi-million dollar project."
Ms. Gargar said the coal-fired power plant operation would be a threat to the biodiversity of the Macajalar Bay, where fishes, seaweeds, and corals would be affected due to thermal and chemical changes in the water.
COPE WITH SHORTFALL
Regional planning officials have said the project was envisioned to help Mindanao cope with the shortfall of electric power supply by 2006 as projected by the National Power Corp. (Napocor).
The proposed power plant is among the projects in the Department of Energy's 2002-2011 energy plan.
It received favorable recommendations from local legislative bodies, the regional development council (RDC), National Economic and Development Authority, and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).
The proposed coal power plant will be in a 55-hectare lot within the Phividec Industrial Estate in Villanueva, Misamis Oriental.
The project will be implemented under the build-operate-transfer scheme, whereby Napocor, under a power purchase agreement deal, will buy from the project proponent the generated electrical power within a 25-year cooperation period at guaranteed levels of performance. After 25 years, the ownership of the plant shall be turned over to the Napocor at no cost.
State Investment and Trust, Inc., a subsidiary of State Power Development Corp. (SPDC), won the bidding for the construction and 25-year operation of the 200-megawatt coal-fired power plant.
The company is a joint venture of SPDC and Steag AG, a German company with a long experience in coal power plants.
Based on a document submitted to the Misamis Oriental provincial board, the project proponent claims of state-of-the-art pollution mitigating devices for the plant.
The project proponent said the power plant would use coal with low sulfur and ash content and would install desulfurization plant, filter bag system and ash disposal area to "effectively reduce the concentration of the emissions and meet the prescribed limits."
The desulfurization plant is said to reduce the sulfur oxides emitted during the combustion of coal, while the filter bag system is said to separate particulate matter from the gaseous emissions.
As to effluents control, the project proponent said wastewater from the boiler area, fire fighting and filter flushing water will be discharged to the preliminary basin for temporary storage.
"Water quality of the combined effluent will be analyzed and treated on-site using the best available technology to ensure that all discharges will conform with DENR standards," the project proponent said. "Thermal effluents generated by the cooling water system will be discharged to the sea."
As stated in the environmental impact statement and other documents submitted by the project proponent, the estimated project cost is $300 million.
The technical secretariat of the RDC-Region 10 infrastructure/utilities development committee, in its report dated June 17, 2002, said out of the $300-million cost, 25% would be the equity of the project proponent, and 75% will be financed through loans from the Japan Bank for International Cooperation and KFW, a public export bank of Germany.
To date, construction of the plant has yet to start as the loans from the two banks, although approved, have yet to be released.
Meanwhile, Noboru Usami, a member of the Japanese Diet (parliament), recently conducted an investigation on the issues surrounding the plant.
In a press conference, Mr. Usami said the Japanese government, through the Ministry of Finance, has supervisory power over the Japan bank that is financing $110 million of the plant's $300-million cost.
Mr. Usami said his findings on the project will be submitted to the Diet for scrutiny.
Sunday, August 29, 2004
Tuesday, August 24, 2004
Environmentalists warn of harmful emissions from coal plant
Froilan Gallardo
MindaNews
08/23/04
CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY -- Emissions at the proposed Mindanao Coal-fired Thermal
Plant in Misamis Oriental could carry heavy concentrations of “harmful” chemicals,
sulphur and nitrogen dioxides, environmentalists here said.
This is because pollution control measures at the controversial coal plant are not up to “international standards,” according to the People’s Campaign against the Mindanao Coal Plant (Camp).
The group came to this conclusion after comparing the environmental structural designs of the coal plant with those in Japan. Japan has the most advanced pollution control measures in the world. Its three coal plants, Nakoso, Niichi and Hekinan, has desulphurization, denitrogenization and electric dust chambers to stop pollution.
Kim Gargar, Camp spokesperson said airborne emissions at the proposed Mindanao Coal
Plant will carry five times more of sodium dioxide; eight times as much of nitrogen
dioxide compared to the Japanese coal plants. He said the controversial coal plant in Tagoloan town is not adopting any of the anti-pollution measures that are being implemented in the Japanese coal plants.
“The pollution will sure have adverse effects on every life form in Cagayan de Oro City and Misamis Oriental,” said Gargar, who also chairs the physics department at the Mindanao Polytechnic State College here.
MindaNews tried to contact the management of State Power Development Corporation (SPDC), the firm that will oversee the operations of the 210-mw coal plant, but was informed by a source close to the company, that officials will issue a statement on the matter next week.
Two years ago, the government-owned Transmission Corporation (Transco) took the cudgels for SPDC officials in answering the environmental issues raised by the anti-coal plant activists. MindaNews phoned Ghaye Alegrio, SPDC operations officer, but Alegrio’s phone just kept ringing. Engr. Lorrymir Adaza, Transco chief, then said SPDC officials have assured them that the anti-pollution devises at the coal plant will follow international environmental standards.
Gargar said they based their conclusions on the environmental structural designs submitted by builders of the coal plant, German firms, KFW Bankengruppe and Steag
Electric Systems, to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources. He said they then compared it with those of the Japanese coal plants. According to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), sodium and nitrogen dioxides act as precursor of acid rain, which can kill aquatic organisms, damage the habitat and erode buildings.
The EPA said sulphur dioxide is not usually absorbed by vegetation, but passes through the soil in the form of sulphate. A preliminary risk assessment made by EPA on the coal plants in the US said health risks are greater on mothers who consume large amounts of fish caught around coal plants. The US agency said children will suffer loss of cognitive abilities like language and motor skills. Respiratory illness, alterations in pulmonary defenses and aggravation of existing cardiovascular disease are among the health concerns listed by the EPA on coal plants. The US government has strictly required coal plants especially those built in the 50s, 60s and the 70s to adopt expensive anti-pollution control measures.
The Environmental Legal Assistance Center (Elac) in Cebu City, which is also opposing a similar coal plant project in that city, identified six other renewable sources of energy, which the Philippine government can tap: geothermal power, small hydropower, bagasse, garbage conversion into electric power system, windpower and solar power.
“While it may be true that these alternative sources are a little bit expensive than a coal-fired power plant, this is nothing compared to the savings we get from being
hospitalized,” the group said in its position paper.
The Philippine government has identified the 200-megawatt coal plant, which is scheduled to be completed in 2008, as one of its main sources of electricity to offset the increasing demand of power in the next decade.
Environmentalists in Cagayan de Oro, received a boost when a member of the Japanese Diet, Noburu Usami, came and visited the site of the proposed coal plant this week.
“I want to see if this project will really benefit the local people,” Usami told reporters during a press conference.
The Japan Bank for International Cooperation(JBIC)is financing US$100 million to build the coal plant in Misamis Oriental. German firms, KFW Bankengruppe and Steag Electric Systems, are financing the rest of the US$300 million.
Usami said he would make representations to the Japanese parliament to stop JBIC from bankrolling the project if he found the design of the coal plant is not “environmentally sound.”
MindaNews
08/23/04
CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY -- Emissions at the proposed Mindanao Coal-fired Thermal
Plant in Misamis Oriental could carry heavy concentrations of “harmful” chemicals,
sulphur and nitrogen dioxides, environmentalists here said.
This is because pollution control measures at the controversial coal plant are not up to “international standards,” according to the People’s Campaign against the Mindanao Coal Plant (Camp).
The group came to this conclusion after comparing the environmental structural designs of the coal plant with those in Japan. Japan has the most advanced pollution control measures in the world. Its three coal plants, Nakoso, Niichi and Hekinan, has desulphurization, denitrogenization and electric dust chambers to stop pollution.
Kim Gargar, Camp spokesperson said airborne emissions at the proposed Mindanao Coal
Plant will carry five times more of sodium dioxide; eight times as much of nitrogen
dioxide compared to the Japanese coal plants. He said the controversial coal plant in Tagoloan town is not adopting any of the anti-pollution measures that are being implemented in the Japanese coal plants.
“The pollution will sure have adverse effects on every life form in Cagayan de Oro City and Misamis Oriental,” said Gargar, who also chairs the physics department at the Mindanao Polytechnic State College here.
MindaNews tried to contact the management of State Power Development Corporation (SPDC), the firm that will oversee the operations of the 210-mw coal plant, but was informed by a source close to the company, that officials will issue a statement on the matter next week.
Two years ago, the government-owned Transmission Corporation (Transco) took the cudgels for SPDC officials in answering the environmental issues raised by the anti-coal plant activists. MindaNews phoned Ghaye Alegrio, SPDC operations officer, but Alegrio’s phone just kept ringing. Engr. Lorrymir Adaza, Transco chief, then said SPDC officials have assured them that the anti-pollution devises at the coal plant will follow international environmental standards.
Gargar said they based their conclusions on the environmental structural designs submitted by builders of the coal plant, German firms, KFW Bankengruppe and Steag
Electric Systems, to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources. He said they then compared it with those of the Japanese coal plants. According to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), sodium and nitrogen dioxides act as precursor of acid rain, which can kill aquatic organisms, damage the habitat and erode buildings.
The EPA said sulphur dioxide is not usually absorbed by vegetation, but passes through the soil in the form of sulphate. A preliminary risk assessment made by EPA on the coal plants in the US said health risks are greater on mothers who consume large amounts of fish caught around coal plants. The US agency said children will suffer loss of cognitive abilities like language and motor skills. Respiratory illness, alterations in pulmonary defenses and aggravation of existing cardiovascular disease are among the health concerns listed by the EPA on coal plants. The US government has strictly required coal plants especially those built in the 50s, 60s and the 70s to adopt expensive anti-pollution control measures.
The Environmental Legal Assistance Center (Elac) in Cebu City, which is also opposing a similar coal plant project in that city, identified six other renewable sources of energy, which the Philippine government can tap: geothermal power, small hydropower, bagasse, garbage conversion into electric power system, windpower and solar power.
“While it may be true that these alternative sources are a little bit expensive than a coal-fired power plant, this is nothing compared to the savings we get from being
hospitalized,” the group said in its position paper.
The Philippine government has identified the 200-megawatt coal plant, which is scheduled to be completed in 2008, as one of its main sources of electricity to offset the increasing demand of power in the next decade.
Environmentalists in Cagayan de Oro, received a boost when a member of the Japanese Diet, Noburu Usami, came and visited the site of the proposed coal plant this week.
“I want to see if this project will really benefit the local people,” Usami told reporters during a press conference.
The Japan Bank for International Cooperation(JBIC)is financing US$100 million to build the coal plant in Misamis Oriental. German firms, KFW Bankengruppe and Steag Electric Systems, are financing the rest of the US$300 million.
Usami said he would make representations to the Japanese parliament to stop JBIC from bankrolling the project if he found the design of the coal plant is not “environmentally sound.”
Link
Saturday, August 21, 2004
Pabango Ng 'Yong Mata
Pabango Ng 'Yong Mata
Orange and Lemons
'Wag ka nang manangis irog
Sayang lamang ang luha mo
May paggagamitan ka nyan
Ako'y malapit nang mamatay
At saka mo na diligin
Ang libingan ko
Ng pabango ng 'yong mga mata
Luha, kusa na lang dumadaloy
Sa mga pagkakataon
Nagpapaalalang tayo's tao lamang
Pagsisisi, lagi na lang sa huli
Sa mga pagkakataong
Nakakalimot pagkat tayo'y tao lamang
Pilitin mang tumindig
Upang ika'y mahagkan man lang ng mahigpit
Kusang napapahandusay sa aking malupit na papag
Nabibilang ko ang sikat ng araw
Parang kay bilis na ng ikot ng mundo
Marahil ito na ang huling awit at hapdi
Na ipadarama ko sayo
'Wag ka nang manangis irog
Sayang lamang ang luha mo
May paggagamitan ka nyan
Ako'y malapit nang mamatay
At saka mo na diligin
Ang libingan ko
Ng pabango ng 'yong mga mata
Link
Church accepted Galileo's ideas 341 years after he died
from Galileo and the Inquisition
Being one of the most renowned scientist of his time Galileo's opinions were scrutinized not only be his peers, but by also by Church officials and the public in general. This made Galileo the lightning-rod of many complaints against the Copernican doctrine (and also some against Galileo himself). He did not come out unscathed out of these encounters.
In 1611 Galileo came to the attention of the Inquisition for the first time for his Copernican views. Four years later a Dominican friar, Niccolo Lorini, who had earlier criticized Galileo's view in private conversations, files a written complaint with the Inquisition against Galileo's Copernican views. Galileo subsequently writes a long letter defending his views to Monsignor Piero Dini, a well connected official in the Vatican, he then writes his Letter to the Grand Duchess Christina arguing for freedom of inquiry and travels to Rome to defend his ideas.
In 1616 a committee of consultants declares to the Inquisition that the propositions that the Sun is the center of the universe and that the Earth has an annual motion are absurd in philosophy, at least erroneous in theology, and formally a heresy. On orders of the Pope Paul V, Cardinal Bellarmine calls Galileo to his residence and administers a warning not to hold or defend the Copernican theory; Galileo is also forbidden to discuss the theory orally or in writing. Yet he is reassured by Pope Paul V and by Cardinal Bellarmine that he has not been on trial nor being condemned by the Inquisition.
In 1624 Galileo meets repeatedly with his (at that time) friend and patron Pope Urban VIII, he is allowed to write about the Copernican theory as long as he treated it as a mathematical hypothesis.
In 1625 a complaint against Galileo's publication The Assayer is lodged at the Inquisition by a person unknown. The complaint charges that the atomistic theory embraced in this book cannot be reconciled with the official church doctrine regarding the Eucharist, in which bread and wine are "transubstantiated" into Christ's flesh and blood. After an investigation by the Inquisition, Galileo is cleared.
In 1630 he completed his book Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems in which the Ptolemaic and Copernican models are discussed and compared and was cleared (conditionally) to publish it by the Vatican. The book was printed in 1632 but Pope Urban VIII, convinced by the arguments of various Church officials, stopped its distribution; the case is referred to the Inquisition and Galileo was summoned to Rome despite his infirmities.
In 1633 Galileo was formally interrogated for 18 days and on April 30 Galileo confesses that he may have made the Copernican case in the Dialogue too strong and offers to refute it in his next book. Unmoved, the Pope decides that Galileo should be imprisoned indefinitely. Soon after, with a formal threat of torture, Galileo is examined by the Inquisition and sentenced to prison and religious penances, the sentence is signed by 6 of the 10 inquisitors. In a formal ceremony at a the church of Santa Maria Sofia Minerva, Galileo abjures his errors. He is then put in house arrest in Sienna. After these tribulations he begins writing his Discourse on Two New Sciences.
Galileo remained under house arrest, despite many medical problems and a deteriorating state of health, until his death in 1642. The Church finally accepted that Galileo might be right in 1983.
Being one of the most renowned scientist of his time Galileo's opinions were scrutinized not only be his peers, but by also by Church officials and the public in general. This made Galileo the lightning-rod of many complaints against the Copernican doctrine (and also some against Galileo himself). He did not come out unscathed out of these encounters.In 1611 Galileo came to the attention of the Inquisition for the first time for his Copernican views. Four years later a Dominican friar, Niccolo Lorini, who had earlier criticized Galileo's view in private conversations, files a written complaint with the Inquisition against Galileo's Copernican views. Galileo subsequently writes a long letter defending his views to Monsignor Piero Dini, a well connected official in the Vatican, he then writes his Letter to the Grand Duchess Christina arguing for freedom of inquiry and travels to Rome to defend his ideas.
In 1616 a committee of consultants declares to the Inquisition that the propositions that the Sun is the center of the universe and that the Earth has an annual motion are absurd in philosophy, at least erroneous in theology, and formally a heresy. On orders of the Pope Paul V, Cardinal Bellarmine calls Galileo to his residence and administers a warning not to hold or defend the Copernican theory; Galileo is also forbidden to discuss the theory orally or in writing. Yet he is reassured by Pope Paul V and by Cardinal Bellarmine that he has not been on trial nor being condemned by the Inquisition.
In 1624 Galileo meets repeatedly with his (at that time) friend and patron Pope Urban VIII, he is allowed to write about the Copernican theory as long as he treated it as a mathematical hypothesis.
In 1625 a complaint against Galileo's publication The Assayer is lodged at the Inquisition by a person unknown. The complaint charges that the atomistic theory embraced in this book cannot be reconciled with the official church doctrine regarding the Eucharist, in which bread and wine are "transubstantiated" into Christ's flesh and blood. After an investigation by the Inquisition, Galileo is cleared.
In 1630 he completed his book Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems in which the Ptolemaic and Copernican models are discussed and compared and was cleared (conditionally) to publish it by the Vatican. The book was printed in 1632 but Pope Urban VIII, convinced by the arguments of various Church officials, stopped its distribution; the case is referred to the Inquisition and Galileo was summoned to Rome despite his infirmities.
In 1633 Galileo was formally interrogated for 18 days and on April 30 Galileo confesses that he may have made the Copernican case in the Dialogue too strong and offers to refute it in his next book. Unmoved, the Pope decides that Galileo should be imprisoned indefinitely. Soon after, with a formal threat of torture, Galileo is examined by the Inquisition and sentenced to prison and religious penances, the sentence is signed by 6 of the 10 inquisitors. In a formal ceremony at a the church of Santa Maria Sofia Minerva, Galileo abjures his errors. He is then put in house arrest in Sienna. After these tribulations he begins writing his Discourse on Two New Sciences.
Galileo remained under house arrest, despite many medical problems and a deteriorating state of health, until his death in 1642. The Church finally accepted that Galileo might be right in 1983.
Link
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