Greenpeace and the Green Renewable Independent Power Producer Inc. are joining the opposition to the power sales contract of KEPCO-Salcon Power Corp. and Central Negros Electric Cooperative, they said in a statement issued yesterday.

KEPCO-Salcon will build a 200-megawatt coal-fired power plant in Naga, Cebu to supply electricity to CENECO and other electric cooperatives in the Visayas starting 2011.

But the two groups said that coal has no place in Negros and elsewhere nowadays when the world has raised the alarm against dangerous climate change.

They said they have been actively engaged in a global campaign to make Negros Occidental truly dependent on 100 percent renewable energy sources.

“This contract entered into by CENECO for KSPC to supply 70 MW to CENECO beginning 2011, 40 MW of which will come from a coal-fired power plant is a clear violation of the province's desire to embrace a 100 percent RE target,” the statement added.

Both Greenpeace and GRIPP said they find the deal unacceptable because it not only ignores the local, national and global relevance of the anti-coal struggle of the Negrosanons but it speaks of the irresponsibility of the utility to invest in an energy source that is the most carbon-intensive and responsible for global climate change.

They added that after victory of the anti-coal campaign in the province in 2002, many communities around the world have drawn lessons and experiences from the Negrosanons in waging a successful fight against fossil fuel-powered plants and catapulting the campaign towards the massive uptake of renewable energy.*

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