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Let the ‘Monster of Morong’ sleep

By Loretta Ann Rosales*

THE BATAAN Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP) is a glaring representation of the country’s fraudulent, wasteful and useless debts. The Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC) also sees it as a symbol of the Philippine struggle against a debt-driven development strategy –often peppered with rent seeking and cronyism – that different administrations, including the current one, have espoused.

To revive the BNPP would be to create bigger social deficits and push the people deeper into the debt and underdevelopment trap. We believe that to make the “Monster of Morong” operational would be to gamble away the people’s lives on a lost deal.

Faulty

Representative Mark Cojuangco is trying to make it appear that there will be a shortage of 3,000 MW before 2012. So, he is proposing the revival of the BNPP to address at least 20 percent of the projected shortage. This faulty claim reflects the government’s track record in forecasting electricity.

In 1993, the Ramos administration projected a 10-percent annual growth in demand for electricity over the next 10 years. This growth in demand failed to materialize. Government data also showed that installed capacity and dependable capacity of generation plants were greater than demand in 1990-2001.

For more than a decade now, overprojecting demand has led to an overcapacity in the Philippine electricity sector, and this has been proven to be as expensive as (if not more than) a power shortage. As of end-2007, Department of Energy data showed an excess capacity of 4,218 MW on a national level.

The inaccurate forecast has resulted in burdening government, by incurring more debts, and consumers by exacting additional charges for unused electricity, thanks to the “take or pay” clause in the contracts the Ramos administration signed with independent power producers.

Weak demand

Possibly taking cues from the current BNPP debate, Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes recently ordered the review of the country’s energy plan, noting that demand has been on a downtrend in Luzon though supply has remained tight in the Visayas and Mindanao.

Reyes said the “reduced requirement for electricity would defer the critical periods for increasing power supply in Luzon, while supply remains tight for [the] Visayas and Mindanao.” His statement contradicts the BNPP bill’s premise.

Justification

One possible justification for the operation of a nuclear plant is to meet an increase in base load, or replace existing base load supply. An increase in base load is highly unlikely in times of economic crisis. However, it is a much worse option to replace the existing base load supply, as the current generators are the environmentally safe geothermal and hydroelectric plants that are necessary in climate crisis mitigation.

The Cojuangco bill says government may raise equity of up to $1 billion either through a surcharge of 10 centavos/kWh on the electricity generated or through loans.

Nowhere in the world has the reconstruction of nuclear power facilities been right on schedule and on budget. The cost of constructing the BNPP itself skyrocketed from the initial estimate of $600 million to $2.3 billion at the end of the construction period, not to mention the $640 million in interest payment.

Moreover, nuclear plant operations will require government financial support, particularly when we factor in the purchase and safe transport of uranium fuel. Given the limited supply of uranium that is reported to be processed only in six countries, chances are we could become hostage to a possible cartel if we continue with nuclear energy.

How true is it to say that the BNPP has been fully paid for, and will therefore not incur expenditures in the current budget?

Payment continues

In the books of the national government, the debts from the BNPP, including those converted into costly Brady Bonds in 1992 and retired in May 2007, have been paid.

However, government borrowed more money, through the issuance of sovereign bonds, to repay and retire these debts. So perhaps, in a narrow accounting sense, the BNPP debt is paid, but we are no less indebted. We continue to pay for this monster.

Loretta Ann P. Rosales is a former Akbayan! party-list representative to the House of Representatives and is currently Vice President of the Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC). She was one of the staunch oppositors of the BNPP at the height of the Marcos dictatorship. For more than two decades now, FDC continues to work on debt and development issues

*Materials on the BNPP provided by the Network Opposed to the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (NOtoBNPP). These articles were originally published in the Philippine Daily Inquirer. NOtoBNPP is a network of progressive organizations, social movements, academics, progressive legislators, human rights advocates, ecologists, media people, church workers, consumers movements & activists against the rehabilitation and operation of the BNPP. (notobnpp.wordpress.com)

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