The Philippine government has implemented laws requiring the use of coconut-blended biodiesel last week ( May 6).
The Philippine biofuels act mandates all oil firms to blend one percent coco-methyl ester in their diesel products. The act also requires the addition of at least five percent ethanol in other gasoline products by 2008, increasing to ten percent by 2010.
Raphael Lotilla, the Philippine’s Energy Secretary, said that the government hopes to decrease the amount of fossil fuels imported into the
The biofuel law will offset 70 million liters of diesel--out of the seven billion liters used every year--and will save the country at least US$167 million annually in foreign exchange, he said.
The move by the
Professor Sandy Gauntlet,
She said biofuel farming was becoming the main cause of deforestation in countries like
The
PCA Administrator Oscar Garin said the
Armando Galvez, one of the estimated 3.5 million coconut farmers in the
“Farmers will now be competing with each other because of the government’s demand on us to produce more coconut for biodiesel,“ Armando told SciDev.Net
Galvez also fears the local population will suffer from a scarcity of food in the future.
“There will be more coconut farmers now. Others might stop producing food crops for the local population and as a result, prices of basic commodities and food staples could soar. That would be devastating,“ he said.
PIN/ SCIDEY.COM
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