Middle ground

Published by the Visayan Daily Star Publications, Inc.

NINFA R. LEONARDIA Editor-in-Chief & President

CARLA P. GOMEZ Editor GUILLERMO TEJIDA III Desk Editor NANETTE L. GUADALQUIVER Busines Editor CEDELF P. TUPAS Sports Editor (On Leave) RENE GENOVE Bureau Chief, Dumaguete MAJA P. DELY Advertising Coordinator

CARLOS ANTONIO L. LEONARDIA Administrative Officer

The planned entry of the Philippine National Oil Co.–Energy Development Corp. into the Mt. Kanlaon Natural Park buffer zone in Bago City has drawn a lot of reactions, with the most vocal coming from concerned environmental groups and the church, who vehemently oppose any moves by the PNOC-EDC to encroach the buffer zone, which will mean cutting down trees and negatively affect the biodiversity of the area.

The PNOC-EDC, on the other hand, cites the need to enter the buffer zone to produce 20 more megawatts to meet the expected power shortage in Negros Occidental in 2010, while maintaining that if they do enter the buffer zone, they will put into place all the necessary measures and precautions to mitigate the environmental impact of its entry into the park in order to fulfill its commitment to provide cheap and renewable geothermal energy to Negros Occidental.

The Philippines is one of the few countries on this planet that is fortunate enough to be blessed with access to geothermal energy, a renewable and relatively clean source of energy. It is our responsibility to make sure that we harness and utilize this gift, but at the same time to ensure that in tapping that precious underground resource, we do our best to preserve the riches that lie above ground. In the case of the Mt. Kanlaon Natural Park buffer zone, there must be a middle ground where the developers and the environmentalists, through the active participation of the government, can agree on.

While increasing the generating capacity of our geothermal plants is inevitable, it must never be done in haste but only after thorough scrutiny and study to find the best way of minimizing its impact on the environment. For while alternative sources of renewable energy from solar, wind, and tidal sources may sound pleasing to the ear, producing 20MW will still be a technological challenge, and we simply cannot ignore the fact that we already have an existing geothermal power plant whose output can be increased by the earth's energy that just waiting to be tapped from the slopes of Mt. Kanlaon.*