Pangelinan participated in one of the seminars conducted during the 2008 National Conference of State Legislatures Summit in New Orleans.
Fossil fuel “is actually cheaper than alternative energy, and the reason…is because the demand for alternative energy has not really geared up yet,” stated Pangelinan, D-Saipan and a member of the Senate Committee on Public Utilities, Transportation and Communications.
She believes that once the demand for alternative energy picks up, people will begin to subscribe to another form of energy other than the fossil-based fuel most countries have been using.
Pangelinan also learned that the U.S. is having some difficulty in hooking up on the power distribution on its own grid, adding that such a situation closely resembles the condition on island.
Earlier, Pangelinan said she said the CNMI government and the Commonwealth Utilities Corp. may consider “buying the Caterpillar engines” [from the Aggreko International Projects Ltd.] as a cost-effective approach to resolving the power crisis in the commonwealth.
She said “some solar and wind power options should still be considered as alternative energy for the near future.”
CUC has accepted proposals for alternative energy from six companies — New Seoul Corp., OCCEES Ocean Engineering & Energy Systems, Commonwealth Industrial Supply Co. Inc., Leminiscate Investment LLC, United Systems Engineering Co. Ltd., and Lucid Energy Technologies LLC.
The proposals are still under evaluation.
