The provincial board of Bataan voted 6-3 in favor of opposing the revival of the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP). Board Members Rod Izon said he and Orlando Miranda sponsored the resolution in support of the Bataan Governor’s (Gov. Enrique Garcia) request.

The resolution sited safety and public expense as to the reason why they are in opposition of House Bill 4631 authored by Rep. Mark Conjuangco that seeks to revive the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant. They are open however to using the BNPP for other uses, but not electricity generation by nuclear power.

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Government came out with another announcement that they are seeking to review and revise the Oil Deregulation Law and not to scrap it.

The Department of Energy has stated that they lack the powers to monitor and regulate the oil industry and revising the law would help them with keeping the prices of fuel and lpg in check.
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Update: Government will review the law for revision and not move to scrap it.

The government has admitted that they lack the laws to effectively regulate the oil industry and because this they are seriously considering scrapping the almost decade old RA 8479 (or more popularly known as The Oil Deregulation Law.)

Add to this the heat received from the public due to the high price of LPG in the local market (despite the low price of oil in the world market) and the Department of Energy unable to find the true cause of the LPG shortage, had helped turn this bush fire into an inferno.
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This slipped my radar, turns out that the Department of Energy (DOE) had already released the accepted biofuel and biofuel blended standards for the Philippines last Feb 3, 2009. These standards were worked upon by the Technical Committee on Petroleum Products and Additives (TCPPA) which was co-chaired by the DOE-Oil Industry Management Bureau (DOE-OIMB) and Dept of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR). It was signed by them last Jan 14, 2009.
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Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp, the Oil refiner and retailer, seems to be in the Philippine government’s spotlight nowadays. One issue it is facing along with the other oil companies is the high price of LPG, which had been partially deflected to the LPG retailers and distributors. They are being accused of hoarding the cooking fuel to artificially inflate the price.

Issues facing the company directly however is its delay to list their shares in the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE). Over ten years have already passed since Oil Refiners were required by the passage of RA 8479 (Oil Deregulation Act) to go public. Shell has admitted that they have no “final” plans as to their IPO citing that issues with the Supreme Court and their Oil Depot in Pandacan have complicated their plans.
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Oil companies are set today to increase the biofuel components of the fuel they sell at the pump in order to comply with the Philippine Biofuels Act of 2006.

This implementation of an increase in biofuel mix is covered by Circular DC2009–02-0002 of the Department of Energy. The said circular approves a 5% mixture in bioethanol with gasoline and 2% biodiesel with petrol diesel at the pumps. The decision to increase was decided upon by the National Biofuels Board(NBB) on January 19, 2009.

As stated in the Biofuel Law of the Philippines, two years after the implementation of the bill (June 8, 2007), biodiesel and bioethanol mixture being sold at the pumps should contain a mixture of 2% and 5% respectively.

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