News Update Energy Dept. searching for countermeasures to LGU obstacles

Energy Secretary Jose Rene Almendras assured the power sector Tuesday that government agencies are hard at work on ways to address local government obstacles to the construction of transmission lines and power plants. Passage of a law is a favored option. The energy chief said an executive order may not be potent enough. "We’re looking. If you really want to make it stick, it’s got to be a law. You need to correct the situation wherein a local government unit can hold the whole country hostage to a situation," Almendras said at the Energy Investment Forum (EIF) Tuesday. He said some investors have complained before the Department of Energy (DOE) about the treatment they have been getting from local officials. "I have an existing problem, I have transmission lines that go through a municipality, and the municipality wants to charge exorbitant… grossly exorbitant taxes and if I don’t pay taxes, they will disconnect me or foreclose the transmission towers and the wires, so what’s gonna happen?" Almendras explained. The energy chief said local governments’ opposition to or excessive taxation of power projects can have disastrous consequences. "The whole country’s gonna suffer. The whole grid’s gonna collapse if you do something like that. There has to be a law. How many power plant projects do we have that cannot move because they’re stuck with local government issues?" Almendras elaborated. He said various options are being explored and the Board of Investments of the Department of Trade and Industry is working with the DOE. “I'm hoping a short term solution can happen. We are still studying how to do it because there’s a lot of resistance to it." — ELR/VS,