MAASIM, Sarangani -- Ground efforts to kick off the coal-fired power project in this town finally became tangible Saturday with the setting up of a carbon sink here.

The carbon sink was set up despite a top company official’s disclosure that the capital expense would be lowered to two-thirds of the original.

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Conal Holdings Corp. and provincial and local government leaders headed by Governor Miguel Rene A. Dominguez and Mayor Aniceto P. Lopez Jr., respectively, led the launching of a plant nursery that will supply the 7,500-hectare carbon sink that will absorb the plant’s carbon dioxide emissions.

At the sidelines of the launching, Gregorio S. Gonzalez Jr., Conal Holdings project manager, admitted they would no longer proceed with the original plan of constructing a 200-megawatt coal power plant but instead push through with only 100-MW.

In September 2007, Conal Holdings announced plans to build a coal power plant with an initial capacity of 200 MW costing $450 million. The firm also targets to increase to 900 MW the plant’s capacity in two 350 MW increments.

"We have revised the plan and start with only 100 MW, hence the projected expenses, including the common facilities like administration building, will only be around two-thirds of $450 million [or $300 million]," Gonzales said.

He said they would bring to 200 MW the plant's capacity when the "demand is already there."

Sources, however, said the lowered construction target was caused by difficulties in accessing foreign investors or financing due to the continuing onslaught of the global financial crisis.

Gonzales did not say when actual plant construction would begin in Barangay Kamanga but added the work duration for the 100 MW, including the common facilities, could last for 40 months, or around three-and-a-half years.

The company official sought the support of the locals for the carbon sink, which would cost the firm $7.5 million or some P362 million in today's exchange rate.

Among the trees identified for planting in idle or grassy portions of the town are mango, rubber, coffee and forest trees.

Gonzales told the small community crowd that some 4,000 farmers could benefit from the forestation project of Conal Holdings, which is 60 percent owned by the Alcantara Group and the rest by the Electricity Generating Public Co. Ltd., Thailand's largest power producer.

The coal plant project has been widely opposed by the local Catholic Church and environment groups, including the City Council of nearby General Santos City, on concerns for the human health and the environment.

For his part, Dominguez, a scion of the Alcantara family, welcomed the coal plant investment, which he claimed could boost not only the town's and but also Central Mindanao region's economic development.

"As a government leader, it's my big responsibility to look for ways to help the people. One of these is attracting investors to help provide other means of livelihood. With this [coal plant project], the local people need not become dependent on fishing alone,” he said in the vernacular. (BSS)