Environmental groups are expressing their disappointment with the incoming administration of Negros Occidental Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson regarding its intention to not refile the ordinance declaring the province coal-free.
While many countries, industrialized and developing alike, have started transitioning to renewable energy, Lacson’s plan and mindset would place the province’s future on dirty energy whose economic and social costs would only escalate in the future. It is ironic that the country’s center for renewable energy would host a coal-fired power plant.
“Governor Lacson clearly does not understand that developing his province’s renewable energy resources would make Negros Occidental a model for self-reliant, clean, and secured energy, which could only be beneficial to its growth and development,” said KASALI’s Executive Director and Living Laudato Si Philippines Lead Convenor Rodne Galicha.
“He is yet another example of short-sighted local leaders who would rather let future generations address the problems that they could otherwise have prevented,” Galicha lamented.
The incoming governor, himself a Catholic, must heed Pope Francis’ message in his encyclical Laudato Si’ that:
“The notion of the common good also extends to future generations… We can no longer speak of sustainable development apart from intergenerational solidarity.” (Laudato Si’, 159)
We support the courageous activists from various sectors in Negros Occidental in their fight to prevent the construction of the coal plant. There is no such thing as “clean coal”.
