Foxconn Technology Group (富士康) is being enticed to invest in Wisconsin with numerous regulatory waivers, raising concerns from environmentalists who are wary of the company’s reputation in China, where it has been accused of polluting rivers.
The Taiwanese company best known for manufacturing Apple Inc’s products has said that its new plant will not damage the environment.
Regulators have said they are simply streamlining the process for the company to set up shop, while still policing its activities.
However, the plant is to be the company’s first in the US and assurances from the company and its supporters have done little to quell worries about the long-term impacts to wetlands and the state’s waterways.
Foxconn would be producing LCD panels for computers, TVs and other devices.
Making LCDs requires heavy metals such as mercury, cadmium, chromium, zinc and copper, University of Michigan professor of environmental engineering Peter Adriaens said.
However, companies in China do not have the same disclosure requirements as companies in the US for the materials they use, he said.
“We know that outside manufacturing plants of Foxconn, rivers are very polluted,” he said.
Less stringent oversight in China makes it difficult to know for certain if Foxconn is responsible, he said. “The correlation is very strong, let’s put it that way.”
Foxconn told reporters that it is committed to “minimizing the negative impact of our operations on the environment.”
“In line with this, we will be implementing measures for our Wisconsin campus in areas, including environmentally friendly product design, carbon emission reduction, process management, energy efficiency and resource management, and supply chain management, among others,” the company said in a statement.
The company also said it has “a very good environmental record in China and in all other locations where we do business” and that “as part of our effort to create a sustainable business, we invest in improving our capabilities in processing waste, wastewater, and emissions.”
With the help of US President Donald Trump, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker was instrumental in persuading Foxconn to pick the state for its plant over several other US states.
The project, which still needs legislative approval, could have a huge economic impact: Foxconn said it could spend up to US$10 billion and eventually hire 13,000 people in exchange for US$3 billion in tax credits.
Along with financial incentives, Wisconsin lawmakers are considering allowing Foxconn to discharge materials into wetlands, fill lakebeds to create more land and reroute streams during construction and operation without obtaining permits from state regulators.
Under the legislation, Foxconn would also not have to provide an environmental impact statement for the 1.86km2 campus it plans to build in southeastern Wisconsin.
Walker’s administration has said the waivers would ensure that construction begins in 2020, but that the company would still have to abide by the usual state and federal environmental standards.
For every 0.4 hectares of wetlands lost, the legislation would require Foxconn to restore 0.8 hectares — more than required by current law, which stipulates 0.5 hectares must be restored for every 0.4 hectares lost, it said.
The company would also still need a federal Clean Water Act permit to discharge wastewater and would have to abide by air quality and hazardous waste standards through permits, it has said.
“The Department of Natural Resources and Army Corps of Engineers will have oversight throughout the construction process of this facility and during the operation of the facility,” Wisconsin Department of Administration Secretary Scott Neitzel told lawmakers during a hearing last week.
The Wisconsin State Assembly has approved the financial and environmental proposals, but they still have not cleared the Wisconsin State Senate, where they could be modified.
As things stand, environmentalists say that the exemptions, while intended to speed up the process, could actually delay the project with lawsuits, said Melissa Scanlan, a Vermont Law School professor and founder of Midwest Environmental Advocates.
“If they’re looking for a speedier way, it would be to follow the permitting process,” Scanlan said, adding that the exemptions violate the state’s constitutional “public trust doctrine,” which makes legislators and the governor responsible for the state’s waters and wetlands.
Adriaens said there are some things the public can expect from the plant.
“There’s no such thing as a chemical manufacturing plant or an electronics manufacturing plant that does not create smells or air pollution. There is no such thing. It all depends on their waste-handling equipment,” he said.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last