Congress has backed the waste-to-energy (WTE) bill that is expected to be passed as an official legal measure.
Senate Committee on Energy Chairman Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian also confirmed his commitment to promote the creation of the regulatory framework of the WTE bill.
The solon believes that this would benefit the country in terms of a more secure energy system, while being mindful of environmental concerns through waste management system.
The Republic Act (RA) No. 9513 also known as the Renewable Energy (RE) Act of 2008 mandates the energy department to adopt WTE facilities, Gatchalian noted.
Gatchalian also added that WTE facilities have almost minimal portion in the mix with only 13.83 MW of installed capacity and 26.48 MW of committed capacity since the implementation of the RE Act.
Gatchalian has promised to prioritize the passage of the WTE bill to address these problems, which he mentioned during the 18th Congress.
The legal measure warrants a WTE strategy in the national, provincial, and solid waste management plans and allows local government units to take part in cooperative undertakings, joint ventures, and other similar modalities for WTE generation facilities.
Gatchalian also met with stakeholders to discuss what role the Senate can take to help fasttrack the WTE industry and make it sustainable in the country.
“During our informal meeting with stakeholders, we identified financial viability and sustainability as the main problems that the WTE industry faces,” Gatchalian was quoted in a Senate press release.
“Financial viability is an issue because it is very expensive to build these facilities and the ‘tipping fee’ or garbage processing fee paid by Local Government Units (LGUs) is too low. If the tipping fee is low, the price of the output (electricity, fuel, or gas) is too high,” he said.