Second chance for coal?

Letter

COAL is—at best—a contentious natural resource. It fueled the Industrial Revolution and continuous to be a vital source of energy.

However, coal is one of the most carbon intensive fuels. In fact, the use of coal as fuel has been blamed for the over concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere—one of the causes of climate change and global warming. There are ongoing efforts to tap clean and renewable energy sources. However, they are still unable to meet the current energy demands.

Coal continues to be the default fuel choice in developing countries like the Philippines.

While hydro power requires massive infrastructures—specifically, large dams that would inundate communities and alter water bodies—coal plants require considerably less investment and land resources.

The cost of each coal-powered megawatt of electricity is still among the cheapest. This is why—despite the clamor to go green—coal continues to be seen as the practical fuel choice.

Traditionally coal has been mined using open-pit mining technology. It must be noted, though, that unlike metallic mining, coal mining does not produce acidic mine drainage. But with recent developments in extracting coal, open-pit mining may soon be a thing of the past.

For one, contour strip mining is seen as a safe method of extracting coal. Contour strip mining only entails partial coal removal as only the soil or overburden is scraped off above the coal seam.

According to the Kaibigan ng Kaunlaran at Kalikasan (“KKK” or Friends of Progress and the Environment), contour strip mining “makes possible progressive rehabilitation (i.e. the undertaking of rehabilitation works even before an entire mine is completely mined out) for use in farming and reforestation.”

The group asserted that the effects of contour strip mining are reversible. Thus, they point out that contour strip mining is “best suited for coal mines in Mindanao.”

After decades of being dependent on hydroelectric power, the growth in Mindanao in the last 20 years requires the building of new power plants. Putting up more hydroelectric plants is no longer feasible as these are very expensive to build.

This is why, starting in 2006, coal-fired power plants have been the go-to energy source of the once energy-deprived island. From being 90 percent reliant on hydro power, Mindanao has slowly become more dependent on coal. Reports indicate that as of 2016 coal now makes up about 40 percent of the island’s energy mix.

Finally, to insulate the coal prices from volatile foreign exchange, which had made coal prices behave like crude oil, Mindanao’s vast coal deposits need to be harnessed. That is where coal strip mining comes in.

Admittedly, just like in any development project, its environmental impact has to be considered. New generation coal-fired generators are said to have lessened the strain on the environment. In time, coal plants and the communities can hopefully co-exist harmoniously. –Robby Guanzon, robby.guanzon@gmail.com

Wrong and Dangerous

THE National Union of Journalists of the Philippines is appalled by the utterly uncalled for and, in the end, unjustified public confrontation pro-administration social media enabler Sass Rogando Sasot forced on BBC Southeast Asia correspondent Jonathan Head as she took umbrage over the British network’s interview of Jover Laurio, who is behind the anti-administration Pinoy Ako Blog.

We are sure the BBC is fully capable of explaining the circumstances behind the Laurio interview and as equally confident Sasot can expound in detail why she is so angered that a “very minor blogger” deserved notice by the international network after her identity was outed “but not someone like me whose social media following is way, way higher than her, whose Facebook engagement is way, way higher than her.”

What we do object to, however, is the gall with which she lambasted and attempted to blame a journalist for content published by his outfit in which he had neither control nor participation, points she eventually had to acknowledge.

But the fact aside that all that Sasot succeeded in doing was betray her utter ignorance about how the media work, confronting Head over content that, as she most probably knew, he had nothing to do with sets a dangerous precedent if her deplorable behavior is emulated by the wide following she claims.

Such an indiscriminate attitude of singling out people because of mere affiliation with media outfits Sasot and her ilk, as well as their followers, may disagree with or find objectionable is extremely dangerous and can only worsen the impunity with which the profession and its practitioners are attacked in what has long remained as one of the deadliest countries in the world for journalists.

We note that Sasot was with an assistant communications secretary who should have known her job well enough that what Sasot was doing was not only wrong but dangerous. –Atty. Jo Clemente, acting chair; Dabet Panelo, secretary general