Senate Bill 2856 sponsored by Senator Ralph Recto calls for fiscal incentives to be given by the government to importers, manufacturers and users of Alternative Fuel Vehicles (AFV). In his sponsorship speech he pointed out the irony that Alternative Fuel Vehicles were much more expensive to buy than traditional fossil fuel powered vehicles. Which could be attributed to the high cost of the technology because of the low adoption rate (because of its high selling price) and because of the taxes imposed on the said vehicles which does not differentiate between traditional vehicles and AFV’s.

AFV’s were defined as those being powered by non-traditional fossil fuel sources such as electricity, natural gas, etc or those using hybrid technology which uses both electricity and gasoline to run.
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Juan Miguel Zubiri, the father of the Biofuel’s bill of the Philippines announced his resignation amidst controversy of cheating during the 2007 election wherein he was in a neck-and-neck race for the final slot in the Senate with rival Koko Pimintel.

As of now it is still unknown as to what will happen to the slot vacated by Migs Zubiri and the final result of his resignation as it is still being reviewed by the Senate.
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A month after announcing that they had decided on the FeedIn Tariff Rates (FIT) for the Renewable Energy sector, the National Renewable Energy Board announced that they have submitted already for approval the FIT rates. As more light gets shed into the matter with this recent announcement, it turns out that the recommended FIT is actually graded depending on the type of renewable energy investment.

The following are the recommended FIT rates based on the type of renewable energy project: solar power (P17.95/kWH), ocean power (P17.65/kWh), wind power (P10.37/kWh), biomass (P7/kWh) and hydro (P6.15/kWh)
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It was announced today by the Iglesia ni Cristo (INC) that they were in support of the government sponsored Reproductive Health Bill that aims to stem overpopulation in the Philippines through the promotion of Responsible Parenthood.

INC’s statement said that it was a “moral imperative” for parents to provide their children with food, shelter, clothing, proper education, religious, and moral training. In order to do this, parents have to plan the size of their family.
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Just when we thought that Feed-in Tariff (FIT) for the Renewable Energy(RE) sector would be delayed again, the Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Board (NREB) announced that they had decided on 11.38 centavos per kWh as a Feed-in Tariff that will go to operators of Renewable Energy power plants. This amount will still be approved by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) and will be implemented by 2014 when the 830 MW RE target has been hit.

The 11.38/KwH will be added to the average joe’s energy bill and will be given to the Renewable Energy operator. In layman’s terms its the price we have to pay in order to encourage investors to build clean energy power plants that will supply energy to the grid. The recommended FIT by developers was actually 16.45 centavos/KwH.
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To comply with the Philippine Biofuel Law, the Philippine Department of Energy announced that they will schedule a public consultation within the year to gauge whether it is feasible to raise the blending requirement of biodiesel to 5% with the diesel being sold at the retail pumps.

The Philippine Biofuel Law states that diesel sold at the pump should have a 2% Biodiesel mix by 2009 and to be raised onwards.
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