Rethinking biofuels
- On the Road, Columns, Road Transport, Transport, Aida Sevilla Mendoza, Biofuels -
By Aida Sevilla-Mendoza
Philippine Daily Inquirer
THE HOTTEST debate in town involves something vital to motorists: fuel. Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago, who ironically enough authored the Biofuels Act of 2007, wants to apply the brakes on its implementation, citing the recent warning of 1998 Nobel laureate for chemistry Dr. Hartmut Michel that our government’s biofuels program could endanger the country’s food security and harm the environment.
The Biofuels Act, which was signed into law in January 2007, requires the oil industry to sell diesel with a minimum 1 percent biodiesel blend (B1) within three months after the signing of the law and gasoline with 5 percent bioethanol (E5) in two years. The Biofuels Act aims to reduce the nation’s dependence on imported fossil fuels, save hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign exchange annually, cut the carbon-dioxide emissions believed to cause global warming and revive the moribund sugar and coconut industries.
Santiago’s call for a review of the Biofuels Act was immediately challenged by Sen. Miguel Zubiri, author of the House of Representatives’ version of the biofuels law when he was a congressman. Countering the argument that converting hundreds of thousands of hectares of arable land from food crops to biofuel crops will cause food shortages, Zubiri clarified that since bioethanol will be derived from sugarcane, there is no need to tap other arable land areas. And since sugar is only an additive, not an essential food staple like rice or corn, planting more sugar for bioethanol production will not sacrifice food security.
