MANILA, Philippines--Greenpeace activists and Iloilo residents urged the local government Wednesday to pull the plug on a proposed coal-fired power plant in Iloilo City, dubbing the project as ?illegal.?

Greenpeace said in a statement that the ?illegal, premature back-filling of the proposed site, despite the obvious environmental impacts it will create and strong public opposition to the project, [is unnecessary] especially since there are clean and safe energy technologies?such as wind, geothermal and biomass?that are readily available.?

According to the group, the proponents of the project have started on the foundations and erected a multilevel steel structure without obtaining a building permit.

Aside from the structure being built illegally, Greenpeace blamed coal-fired power plants for the increasing incidence of extreme weather events in the country like the recent Tropical Storms ?Ondoy? and ?Pepeng? that hit Luzon earlier this month, and Typhoon ?Frank? that similarly devastated Iloilo with floods last year.

?Operating this coal plant directly contributes to the global climate crisis and local pollution, as well as being a threat to the health of local residents? said Amalie Obusan, climate and energy campaigner of Greenpeace Southeast Asia.

Greenpeace research showed that there was an abundance of renewable energy potential in the area that could go on stream as early as 2010.