Penang Watch

Many economists and environmentalists hope that the fuel subsidies ut can be reallocated to more relevant areas -most notably on our poor pulic transports. Yet there is no such reallocation on the drawing board (latest pronouncement is a measely RM100mil for the Public Transport Fund, while subsidies cut range in the billions). Is the hope for better fund (re)allocation misplaced/wishful thinking? Endorsing such half-way measures sems to give wrong credit to the Badawi government when the subsidies cut may well end up in politicians' pockets as suggested by a poll by Penang Watch recently. When the government make piecemeal policy may be the civil society need to do better than take their piecemeal solutions at face values! 

Tuesday June 24, 2008(Star)
Coming to terms with oil addiction
By HILARY CHIEW

PETALING JAYA: The 41% hike in petrol prices was on everyone’s mind at a recent seminar on climate change.

Malaysians are painfully coming to terms with the downside of our oil-addicted lifestyle – that cars run on petrol which is a volatile global commodity and fossil fuel is a finite resource.

Poor public transport aside, Malaysians are hardly discouraged from owning cars and it is common knowledge that private transport accounts for the biggest portion of fuel consumption in a typical household here.

The seminar reflected and analysed the achievements and shortcomings of the global and national response to the pressing issue of global warming. Burning of fossil fuel accounts for 65% of man-made greenhouse gases and transport is a major culprit.
"All over the world, public transport has to be subsidised one way or another"- GURMIT SINGH

Hence, many environmentalists blame oil subsidies by governments as a short-sighted policy.

As unpopular as it is amid looming public protests, local environmentalist Gurmit Singh inevitably found himself supporting the Government’s decision to eliminate fuel subsidies. In fact, he thought it was long overdue.

“Many Malaysians waste energy. The increase (in fuel prices) could have been gradual but perhaps the Government decided to bite the bullet,” he reasoned.

But Gurmit Singh was quick to point out that the move was ill-conceived as little was done to provide viable public transport.

He questioned the removal of the subsidy for RapidKL at a time when its services are most needed to cater to the potential surge in commuters as motorists turn to buses.

The integrated public transport company was still trying to iron out the disjointed bus and train services with a single ticketing system and high connectivity.

The price hike is bound to increase RapidKL’s operational costs, resulting in fare increases.

“We see a policy disconnect here when this is an opportunity to encourage a switch to public transport. All over the world, public transport has to be subsidised one way or another – be it vehicle duties removal, tax rebate or capital costs subsidy,” Gurmit Singh added.

A regular bus user lamented that after all these years, the Government has failed to develop an efficient system to wean the public from car ownership.
Poor substitute: Many feel public transport is still not good enough to wean Malaysians from car ownership.

The national car project and obsession with constructing more highways to cater to the growing traffic volume do not encourage the development of sustainable transport.

Hence, it is not surprising that there has not been an official study on fuel efficiency and carbon dioxide emission level of public transport as discovered by Gurmit Singh's organisation, the Centre for Environment, Technology and Development Malaysia (Cetdem).

Bus companies, including RapidKL, were reluctant to provide Cetdem with their fuel consumption and ridership records, prompting the centre’s researchers to rely on data from random surveys of bus drivers.

The dismal energy governance is also reflected in the lackadaisical attitude towards the development of renewable energy.

Under the Government’s five-fuel policy mooted in the mid-1990s, renewable energy was identified as an option to diversify the country’s fuel mix. However, a decade later, very little has been achieved in this field.

Malaysia’s petroleum deposits are forecast to run dry by 2014 unless new reserves are discovered. The country will become a net importer of petroleum while its natural gas productions are mainly contracted for sale to Japan and South Korea.

To a question from a seminar participant, Badriyah Abdul Malik, undersecretary of regulatory and industry development at the Energy, Water and Communications Ministry, said the initial target of 400MW of renewable energy was revised downward to 350MW in the Ninth Malaysia Plan.

She explained that there were insufficient renewable projects and biomass-based renewable energy was still unreliable.

On the Government’s decision to turn to coal, Badriyah said it was a cheap and viable option.

Gurmit Singh disagreed. He argued that dependence on imported coal ran counter to the notion of energy security as coal-fired power plants would be vulnerable to fluctuating global prices and reliability of supplies.

That rationale, he added, was no longer valid as coal prices rose in tandem with crude oil prices.

Gurmit Singh warned that poor policy implementation would weaken the country’s efforts to mitigate and adapt to climate change.

“If we invest in projects that are carbon-intensive with a lifespan of 30 years, it’ll be very costly to switch later.

“We have to start reviewing investment in long-term projects (that are carbon emitters) as by 2020, we have to accept the (emission) cap since we are considered an advanced developing country like Singapore and South Korea,” he said.