Articles, essays, and talks of Rey Lugtu

(Published in the Manila Standard Today under the Greenlight column, June 23, 2008) The Philippine government has recently expressed to seriously study the option of opening the mothballed Bataan Nuclear Power Plant to bolster the country's energy supply. And why not? In this age of US$135 a barrel of petroleum, many economic planners in countries across the globe are prodded to consider nuclear energy as a more economical and efficient energy source. In a recent article by Sam Knight in the Financial Times, he describes this transformation of the nuclear industry in the next 20 years as “renaissance” or rebirth. This is an apt description for a once dead industry. Revival So it was once dead. No new reactor has been built in the US since 1979, when an accident at the Three Mile Island power plant caused the reactor core to melt. The construction of nuclear power plants in the last 22 years since the Chernobyl incident was on a standstill, with the exception of Japan, South Korea,

(Published in Manila Standard Today on Jun 3, 2008, under the Greenlight column) Like the proverbial oil and water, oil and rice shouldn’t mix as it will spell disaster. Increasing prices of oil and rice in the world markets have hit the Philippines hard which caused the prices of goods to climb. Inflation is forecasted to rise to a record high of 5.5. to 6.5 percent in May and might reach 9 percent in June. In this era of oil price of 120 dollars-a-barrel and tight rice supply, overall food prices already rose 12 percent, and the price of rice alone rose to nearly 25 percent from a year ago. As a result, poverty in this country may reach record highs – truly a disaster. Indeed, oil and rice (or food for that matter) are two commodities that have a powerful impact on economies, countries, and its people. Individually, they have become threats to national security of countries the world over. Nations’ dependence on oil and its shortage will pose greater risk on national, global, and ene