House to draft geothermal power bill
A'an Suryana The Jakarta Post Jakarta
The House of Representatives endorsed on Monday during a plenary session a plan to draft a law on geothermal power to help provide legal certainty for investors in the field.
The initiative to draft the law came from the House Commission VIII on energy and mineral resources. The House rarely utilizes its initiative right to draft a law.
All nine factions approved the initiative plan.
The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), the biggest fraction in the House, supported the bill as the bill would serve as a guidance for the government in formulating policy in the geothermal field.
"So far, we only presidential decree. Therefore, the law on geothermal power is needed as it could serve as an umbrella law in the field of geothermal power," Paulus Maria Saul De Ornay read out his fraction statement before the plenary meeting.
Meanwhile, Golkar Party fraction endorsed the initiative on the ground that the Geothermal Power Law could endow legal certainty in the consenting field.
"The legal certainty is important as geothermal power is considered as a high risk investment for investors," said Djamaluddin Sahidu, representing his fraction, the second biggest in the House.
Djamaluddin added that presidential decree often changed so that it could not assure the certainty of law.
Some 349 out of total 500 DPR members were present in the plenary meeting.
During the Monday's plenary meeting, the factions underlined the importance of geothermal power in Indonesia.
Geothermal power was environmentally friendly, and it could add supply of electricity power amid the threat of power shortage, legislators said.
They also said that geothermal was of high potential to be developed in Indonesia.
According to a government data, 40 percent of the world's geothermal steam resources are located in Indonesia which could potentially produce some 20,000 Megawatt electricity power.
Following the Monday endorsement, the House Commission VIII would talk with related government institutions to help in the drafting of the bill.