Yesterday, I also announced, for the second time, an initiative where we are encouraging economic zones to be set up around the geothermal sites, because not only can geothermal fields give us power, they also give us jobs because the local governments earn royalties from the geothermal power. And they, by law, they can only use most of it for electricity. So they subsidize the electric bills of the constituents. So now we are creating economic zones there, so that businesses, like electronics, for instance, power incentive electronics firms, will locate there. So aside from the subsidized power bills from the local governments, they will also have the usual investment incentives. So these areas, which are usually far from central Manila, will now have industries, as well as power.

Subsidized power means overused power means wasted power. No country, and certainly not the Philippines, has renewable power to waste -- especially not in the age of global warming. What an unfortunate law that forces local governments to waste energy.

This post was created for ClimateProgress.org, a project of the Center for American Progress Action Fund.