The Center for Alcohol Development and Research on Monday warned that the suspension of the Biofuels Act will imperil the country’s P30-billion bioethanol industry and drive away foreign investors.
“If we are going to suspend this and if we are going to change the rules in the middle of the game, then we are scaring the foreign investors away. We are sending a negative, wrong signal to these companies,” Card president Gerardo Tee said.
The country’s P30-billion industry consists of 11 bioethanol companies. Each bioethanol investor spent about P3 billion to P5 billion for a distillery with the capacity of 100,000 liters per day, depending on the technology used, Tee said.
“The Biofuels Law is not about lowering the prices of gasoline. It is about the diversification of the sugar industry which empowers the marginalized farmers, sugarcane farmers, it is about rural development. It is about putting the people, making the people go to agriculture, developing our farms, providing a livelihood in rural areas rather than them moving away to Metro Manila,” he said.
The Department of Energy earlier asked oil companies to roll out the lower priced Euro 2 diesel fuel in their retail stations to help mitigate the impact of rising inflation to consumers.
