(Taguig City). The Department of Energy (DOE) today emphasized the need to streamline regulatory processes for energy projects to speed up the provision of stable and affordable energy throughout the country.
Upon his assumption as Energy Chief, Secretary Alfonso G. Cusi has been strongly pushing for a sound policy that will ensure energy projects are carried out on time.
Supporting this call, President Rodrigo Duterte issued on 30 June 2017 Executive Order (EO) No. 30, creating an Energy Investment Coordinating Council (EICC) led by the DOE that will spearhead and coordinate national government efforts to harmonize, integrate and streamline regulatory processes, requirements and forms relevant to the development of energy investments in the country.
The Council will maintain a database of information and a web-based monitoring system for information exchange and updates to uphold transparency and accountability.
“The Council will guide the various agencies in speeding up their regulatory processes for the fast realization of energy projects to be tagged as “Projects of National Significance’ under the Philippine Energy Plan (PEP),” Cusi explained.
“The PEP sets the vision for our energy affairs in order to deliver the objectives of Dutertenomics, particularly in identifying energy projects that need to be built and constructed on schedule,” Cusi pointed out.
Cusi further emphasized, “The longer the processing of energy projects gets, the more expensive it becomes, which could also impact on the delivery of energy services and their affordability.”
The EO provides that government agencies concerned with energy projects should presume other agencies were able to act upon and issue their respective permits within a 30-day period.
“Given that energy investors have complete requirements, cutting down the period of issuance of permits will certainly speed up the realization of energy projects,” Cusi assessed.
The EICC will be chaired by the DOE and shall be composed of representatives from various national government agencies and relevant energy institutions (e.g., Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Department of Finance, Department of Justice, Department of Transportation, National Electrification Administration, National Grid Corp. of the Philippines, National Power Corp., National Transmission Corp., Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board, Palawan Council for Sustainable Development and other relevant government agencies). ###doeph