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As oil prices continue to escalate worldwide, so does the public’s
need for measures to help them cope with the soaring price of
electricity and fuel become ever more pressing.
Raul Conception, Consumer Oil Price Watch
chairman, said the Philippines should develop alternative fuels as
local oil companies have no control over the rising oil prices that
have pushed pump prices up.
Alternative fuels, on the other hand, are
relatively cheaper and cleaner than their fossil fuel-based
counterparts. More importantly these fuels, such as compressed
natural gas (CNG), can be sourced locally, unlike fuel at the pumps
that are mostly imported abroad.
As the consumer advocate group’s head grimly
put it, “the days are numbered for the transport sector” unless
such cheaper fuels are made available.
Although the government leans towards the
development of the country’s alternative and renewable energy
sources as a solution to its oil woes, Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes
said it may take some time to do this as necessary infrastructure
have to be put in place first.
Reyes said it would take at least two years
before a pipeline can be put up to bring the supply of natural gas
at the Malampaya gas field to Metro Manila. At present, natural gas
from the field, which is run by a consortium led by Shell
Philippines Exploration BV, is mainly used to power three power
plants.
Although it has put up a CNG refilling station
and a number of companies have expressed interest to follow suit
with their own facilities, Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp. Country
Chairman Ed Chua said the “rollout of CNG will only be possible
when the pipeline is in place.”
Despite this, Reyes said the Department of
Energy is working on a “system of accreditation” that would
assure the safety and reliability of technologies that will allow
vehicles to run on other alternative fuels.
But as long-term solutions are still being
ironed out, the public can do a number things that can help them
survive the present energy crisis as outlined under an analysis
conducted by economist Vic Abola of the First Metro Investment Corp.
and University of Asia & the Pacific Capital Markets Research
Center. The study shows energy costs can be reduced by at least a
third by applying energy saving systems.
“For example, large firms [or a group of them;
or with the local municipality] in rice-producing areas can generate
their own electricity using rice hulls [a waste from milled palay],”
it says.
On the other hand, households are urged to
convert to their vehicles to liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), which
saves on gas bill by a third, and use compact fluorescent light
bulbs, which consume only less than a fourth of ordinary
incandescent life and have a life eight times longer than the
former.
Apart from car-pooling to reduce gas expenses,
“middle- to high-income families should try to take more public
transportation like the LRT-MRT, which is clean, reliable, and
safe,” the report further exhorts.
Companies, on the other hand, are prodded to
consider company-chartered shuttle buses or some other
cost-effective transport for employees, and to convert company cars
or vans to run on LPG.
-- Euan Paulo C. Añonuevo
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