Manila Teachers partylist Rep. Virgilio Lacson has urged his colleagues to look into the possibility of using the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP) as a source of power in a bid to decrease the cost of electricity rates in the country. The House leader filed House Resolution No. 1148 directing the appropriate committee of the House of Representatives to look into the matter, saying that Congress should step in and address the country’s skyrocketing power rates. “For years, the cost of electricity in the country has increased exponentially mainly because of its reliance on imported fossil fuels. In Asia, the Philippines is the second highest in electricity prices,” Lacson said in his two-page resolution. “During this time of COVID-19 pandemic, it is apt to find the sources of power for electricity, in order to help ease the losses and burdens of our consumers. One source of electricity that is found to be reliable and cheap is nuclear energy. Nuclear power plants do not emit greenhouse gases during generation of electricity,” he said. The chairperson of the House Committee on Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise Development noted that the BNPP, which was constructed in 1984 in Morong, Bataan, has been sitting idly for years. According to him, the BNPP was set to generate 623 megawatts of electricity. “The utilisation of BNPP will help the country’s problem of high electricity rates, especially now that the pandemic is causing problems to our economy and consumers,” Lacson said.