Local environmentalists are pushing for wider public support on the move to reduce or even halt the operation of coal-fired power plants in the Philippines.
The Dumaguete City-based national organizers of 350.Org-Pilipinas agreed in a meeting yesterday, to map out a campaign strategy to involve high school and college students, in the anti-coal campaign, Trelly Marigza said.
The campaign from September to October will include a series of forums in schools that will focus on the ill-effects of coal on health, energy and the environment, and also the legal concerns, she added.
It is also seeking a class moratorium against coal-fired power plants, especially with the implementation of the Renewable Energy Act, and the availability of alternative energy sources in the country, Marigza said.
Part of the campaign will be to stop the approval of more applications for coal power, end or minimize the operations of existing coal-fired power plants, and to ask local power distribution utilities in Negros Oriental to stop purchasing power from these utility firms, she said.
The Negros Oriental Electric Cooperatives I and II, and other electric cooperatives in the Visayas, are getting parts of their power allocations from coal-fired power plants in Negros Occidental and the Korean Electric Power Company in Cebu, Marigza said.
The anti-coal activities are in line with this year’s worldwide Moving Planet campaign, that hopes to encourage nations to move away from the use of fossil fuel, she added.*PNA
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