Politician Pacquiao's battle against coal-fired plant (part 2)

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. . . continued from page 1 

Manny Pacquiao's opposition to the proposed coal plant in Saranggani stems from coal being a dirty source of energy.  It is a fossil fuel that is finding disfavor among local and national governments around the globe.  There are alternatives to coal.

   The Philippine archipelago has over 3.9 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of proven natural gas reserves, most of which are located in the Malampaya gas field, according to Oil and Gas Journal.  However, this widely available resource constitutes only about 10% of the nation's energy consumption.  A 312-mile subsea pipeline connects the natural gas processing facility to three (cleaner) power plants in Batangas with a combined generating capacity of 2,700 megawatts (MW).  However, a second gas field, the Sampaguita field, could hold up to 5 trillion cubic feet of natural gas reserves. That would make a liquefied natural gas (LNG) project feasible - with matching cohesive political will.

The ancient Egyptians built the Great Pyramids several thousand years ago which reached the heavens.  Their contemporaries cannot build a LNG or gas conversion plant to utilize trillions of cubic feet of natural gas right in their own backyards - with commercially viable and proven technologies. 

With resolute leadership and proper execution, it is possible to generate mass quantities of electricity in the country - that is, if planned and done the right way, not the "easy and dirty" way.  Gas-to-liquids (GTL), gas-to-ethylene (GTE), coal-to-liquids (CTL) advancements, among numerous others, are drastically changing economic feasibilities and energy operational capabilities in various regions.

Liquefied natural gas (LNG), compressed natural gas (CNG), floating liquefaction, medium-scale LNG, and related liquefying technologies are converting natural gas into premium fuels that can more than compete with every expensive conventional petroleum-based premium fuels and diesel.  Such technologies can provide gasoline as low as $30 a barrel.  Emerging start-up ventures are contending their gas conversion technologies can provide gasoline as low as at $25 a barrel.  Currently, major oil companies and countries are wasting over 100 billion cubic meters of natural gas annually, according to World Bank estimates.  Other estimates peg this figure at over 150 million cubic meters (or approximately 5.3 trillion cubic feet) of natural gas wasted annually.  Worth over $30 billion of natural gas per year, adding as much as 400 million tons of climate warming CO2 emissions into the Earth's atmosphere, per year.  

Nigeria is the world's biggest gas flare offender, followed by Russia.  These are either vented into the atmosphere or flared (burned off).  Gas flaring is a common practice because operators want to get to the oil, so the gas is burned off.  It is viewed as a highly available resource that is too cheap to save.  It is more convenient to vent or flare (burn) it so more expensive petroleum resources can be harvested.  In Alaska, gas is simply discarded and re-injected beneath the Earth's surface.  There has traditionally been an emphasis on recovering petroleum by way of a large oil pipeline.  By leveraging gas conversion technologies, the natural gas can instead be transformed to liquid fuel which can add as much as 200,000,000 barrels of gasoline-grade fuel each year for the U.S. market.  Theory.  No such initiative is taking place.  Such volume in gas will continue to be dumped into the Alaskan ground, vented, or flared each year for the foreseeable future.

This view is becoming archaic.  And unsustainable.

   Waste to Profits

GE Energy recently partnered with a large Chinese food company (with an inventory of millions of chickens) to convert chicken waste into electricity.  GE's Jenbacher biogas engine is unlocking the value of waste and is feeding a local Chinese power grid.  Residual material can be used as fertilizer. 

Investors and industrialists can earn extra income in the process of helping to save the Earth.  The additional revenue stream can help to cover operating expenses.  The public gains by having cleaner air.  The government collects taxes.  When people make money, all boats rise.  It is also the right, ethical, and moral thing to do.  It only takes one human generation to make mankind permanently extinct.  We should not be that generation.  The Jenbacher biogas engine will also be used to convert methane gas found in mines in Australia into electricity. 

A philosophy of resourcefulness, and respect for nature, is converting waste into profits; waste into cleaner environment.  And that is why Manny Pacquiao is on the right side of history:  renewable, clean, efficient, and resourceful.  Respect, nature, higher standards, discipline, morality.  

There are two root causes to the issue.  Over-population.  And the separation of divinity from nature.  That the higher power / the Creator is separate from Earth, unlike the Native American paradigm.

Humility allows us to recognize the threats surrounding us.  Because when you are egoistic, you believe you are invincible.  The receding polar ice caps betray man's vulnerability to his surroundings.  When you unplug nature's connection, man dies.  Figuratively, and physically.

   The Hero and His Eternal Struggle

Joseph Campbell once remarked that if you really want to help the world, show people how to live.  The Hero, therefore, fights an eternal struggle.  The wearer of the mask changes a thousand times.  But he, the Hero, has to show his brethren how to live and adjust as appropriate to changing times.  General Douglas MacArthur would declare that there is no lasting security; only opportunity.  The Hero's symmetric mission and function, and asymmetric symbolism, remains transfixed - a constancy in purpose.  Or the tribe cannot exist.  Life is too harsh.  So are man's surroundings brute. 

Pacquiao showed his people to fight for a worthy struggle.  The "People's Champ" wore the nation's colors and undertook the impossible.  The fistic representation manifested in the ring.  His symbolism grew to encompass his nation's battles.  The Hero's childhood desperation magnified the plight of so many under the same circumstances.  Who can fathom only eating rice once a day?  Manny, by the sheer power of hands and heart, overcame the abyss.  In his new role, the mind seeks to improve the lot of his people.  The road of the Eternal Struggle is a path of the unknown.  But there is a unifying cause that only prayer towards a mysterious and invisible force can bring.  History will accord Manny Pacquiao as the Filipino who taught his country there is honor in service, sacrifice, and the pursuit of worthy struggles.  Man's worth is proportionate to the worth of his ideals and what he strives for.  In the ancient saying:  emulate not your master; pursue what the masters tried to attain.

In that spirit the writer wrote his book.  The jeepney driver continued to fight to feed and care for his family.  The forgotten maid held her head high in pride.  The remote soldier became valiant.  The average citizen stopped being angry - and became inspired.

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