Pertamina under fire on unleaded gasoline
JAKARTA (JP): An environmental group criticized state-owned oil company Pertamina yesterday for lacking a commitment to unleaded gasoline, and blamed public ignorance of its benefits on this.
Chairwoman of the Indonesian Forum for Environment (Walhi) Emmy Hafild said that Pertamina had a major role to play in promoting the use of unleaded gasoline, but that the company had failed to act as it should.
"If Pertamina is really committed to making people use unleaded gasoline, they should not set Super TT prices higher than regular fuel," Emmy told The Jakarta Post.
Pertamina sells unleaded gasoline, under the brand name Super TT, for Rp 975 (32 U.S. cents) per liter, and leaded fuel for Rp 850.
"If unleaded gasoline is more expensive than leaded, how will the average person be interested in using it?" Emmy said.
"Air pollution here has reached a critical level," she said. "In my opinion, leaded gasoline should no longer be produced."
A survey released Tuesday showed widespread ignorance among Jakarta car drivers and motorcycle riders of the environmental friendliness of unleaded fuel.
The survey, conducted by the Indonesian Consumers Foundation in cooperation with Swisscontact, a private foundation working to improve urban environments, found that while many respondents knew about the harmful effects of leaded fuel, 64 percent of 600 respondents knew almost nothing about the benefits of using unleaded fuel.
Unleaded gasoline produces less air pollution than traditional fuel and can have a major impact on improving air quality.
A member of Swisscontact said here last year that banning leaded fuel could improve the city's air quality by up to 40 percent within a year.
Last year Pertamina supplied only 50,000 liters of unleaded gasoline to Jakarta's 2.5 million vehicles.
Emmy said yesterday that as well as cutting the price of unleaded fuel, Pertamina should increase the number of gas stations selling it.
"How can we urge people to use unleaded gasoline when there are so few gas stations offering it?" Emmy said.
She said she had been unable find a gas station in the South Jakarta area selling it.
Emmy said the media should give more space to environmental issues, including the need to use unleaded gasoline.
"Environmental news is given little space, and rarely on the front page," Emmy said. "This does little to improve people's awareness of the environment."
She said environmental organizations could not do much to improve people's awareness by themselves because they had limited funds and resources.
She said Walhi, for example, "only has funds to produce thousands of stickers, but Jakarta has millions of people."
What was needed, Emmy said, "are large repeat ads on television to make people take note of environmental issues."
Minister of Mines and Energy I.B. Sudjana said in March that leaded gasoline would be phased out and be banned in 1999. (ste)