A Quezon City councilor is supporting moves for a long term solution to oil price hikes, thru the renewable energy (RE) resources and green transport initiatives.
Third district Councilor Gian Carlo Sotto, in a proposed resolution said short term solutions have short term effects on problems like oil price hike that affect not only the Philippines but other countries as well — which needs a long term solution.
He noted that the government has implemented a fuel subsidy plan for public transport to be able to cope with steadily rising fuel costs.
This program, Sotto said, is only a “stop gap measure with short term effects” to the country’s problem.
Studies showed that renewable energy alternatives and electric and hybrid vehicles will bring long term solution to oil price hike and at the same time help stimulate the growth of new industries, according to Sotto.
He said a hybrid vehicle uses traditional gasoline or diesel fuel but includes a secondary energy source in the form of batteries, and when the vehicle stops, the batteries catch the energy.
Electricity- driven vehicles are usually battery- powered electric vehicles, but most of these vehicles need to be recharged frequently.
President Ninoy Aquino has, during the launching of e-tricycle, also expressed the view that one of the long term solutions to oil price hike is the use o electric tricycles which uses electricity instead of fuel.
Even Senator Edgardo Angara, chair of the Congressional Commission on Science and Technology and Engineering (COMSTE) has also expressed support for the new eco-jeepney program of the Department of Energy, which would help ease the nation’s dependence on oil. -30- Divine/ Maureen Quinones, PAISO
