Pinoy New Era Of Investment

Finally, after some rough sailing and being bypassed by five Congresses, the renewable energy bill was finally signed into law by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo . She hopes that it would attract investments and enable the country to achieve greater energy independence.

Now a law, the Renewable Energy Act of 2008 (Republic Act 9531) seeks to promote the development of renewable energy resources and its commercialization. It aims to achieve this by providing incentives to institutions that invest in the sector. Sources of renewable energy includes the sun, wind, bodies of water, organic matter and the earth’s heat.

In her speech, Mrs. Arroyo said “Last year, when renewable energy reaped a milestone $71 billion in investments, even oil giants like Abu Dhabi put up a special renewable energy corporation. Our Renewable Energy Act would enable us to capture a part of this investment flow through… tax holidays, tax credits, and other incentives,” she also added that the measure was timely because it mitigates the impact of climate change.

“Most of the energy to be generated will come from wind hydro and solar and biomass,” according to Mario C. Marasigan, director of the Energy Department’s Energy Utilization and Management Bureau. “Hopefully in the next two years, we will have somewhere around 500 to 1,000 megawatts and somewhere around $20-25 billion worth of investments… We will reach 60% energy independency by 2010,” he added. Presently, we are only 58% energy-independent.

This development brings a lot of promise and hope to the country. With the rising cost of our main source of energy which is the fuel, and the global financial crisis, we have something good to look forward to. Let’s just hope that its implementation will not be hounded by too much politics and other self-serving agenda by our lawmakers and other influential institutions.