Energy and Fuels Price Hike: Case for Vegetable Oil

As of this week, the Power Companies of the Philippines are raising the prices of electricity. The prices of fuel at the pumps have hiked twice within the week.  Same story for LPG.  Because of this, the transport groups are clamoring for a two peso increase in their fares. The Railway Transit System in the capital city is also planning to raise its prices.

All doom and gloom right? Yeah, it is.

And all of these price hikes are inter-related. The price of electricity will go up following the shut-down of the Malampaya oil fields. They power generating companies claim that the new price will account for the more expensive fuels that they will be forced to import following the closing of Malampaya. The downstream oil industry is likely to be affected by this as well since they will have to compete with the power generating companies for fuel (though I am not exactly sure if they will be competing for the same sources and kinds of fuel).

The clamor of the transport groups is legitimate. They will need higher fares if they are to keep up with the fuel price hikes. As a fellow human being my heart goes out for them. (But as a motorist who is forced to share the road with the boors, I hope they go out of business. Filipinos need to learn to walk more. Hahaha) The prices of everything will also go up to account for the increased cost in transport.

See everything is inter-related.

Now, let me take this opportunity to make a point. Its the same point I made in Yolanda and the Vegetable Oil Connection. Its that we, should learn to make use of straight vegetable oil and waste vegetable oil as a fuel. In fact we should make it a viable source. No need for all that pesky transesterification to turn it into bio-diesel. Just pump it as it is into the engine. Its only the engine that needs to adapt to the fuel and not the fuel that has to adapt to the engine.

I think that vegetable oil will be a viable source of fuel for transport. And I know that in bio-fuel circles there is such a thing as a fuel-food debate, but there are alternative sources of vegetable oil that don't necessarily have to grow on agricultural land. Jatropha for example can grow on marginal lands, and algae does not need land. In fact algae is said to be very efficient in converting the sun's energy into biomass. Here is a link to do further research. Have a nice day.