Albay Rep. Joey Salceda, ways and means chairman, on Sunday welcomed the effort of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to diversify the country’s energy portfolio by engaging in talks with French President Emmanuel Macron on possible partnership in nuclear energy.
He said to shift away from fossil fuels remains the country’s most important step toward cheaper, more stable, and more dependable energy supply.
“The lesson that must be learned from COVID-19, as it should have been from the Global Financial Crisis, is that countries shift or revert towards dirty energy after crises because they see it as cheap, only to later on see their prices spike up above pre-crisis levels
That always happens,” he said.
“So, President Marcos’s efforts to diversify our energy portfolio respond to the most urgent national needs for clean and cheap energy and for climate change mitigation,” he added.
Salceda earlier called Marcos Jr.the country’s first “renewable energy President.”
“He is the first President to have been elected on a strong platform of renewable energy. That platform and its iconography of windmills was the main symbol of the campaign, as well, and evoked themes of forward-thinking and innovation. President Marcos has been
staying true to that, so far, with the liberalization of RE generation. He is on track to achieve much more,” he stressed.
“While nuclear as renewable energy is debatable, it is definitely cleaner than coal, which comprises more than half our dependable capacity. Coal emits 70x more CO2 per kilowatt-hours than nuclear. Nuclear accidents can be avoided with technology. But coal always
kills, with slow death by environmental asphyxiation,” he said.
With such development, the Albay lawmaker said he is hoping that the President would reiterate President Rodrigo Duterte’s declaration of transitioning to nuclear energy as a national energy strategy.
“I also hope that he will prioritize the institutionalization of the Philippine Nuclear Regulatory Commission as an agency,” he said. Salceda is the principal author of the bill.