Few would argue that the air pollution situation in Taichung needs to be addressed. This is why Minister of Transportation and Communications Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍), when he was mayor of Taichung, demanded that Taiwan Power Co reduce emissions from the Taichung Power Plant when the air quality was poor, and reduce the amount of electricity it was generating, setting new national standards.
He also had this author, then director of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau, draw up the draft text for the Autonomous Act for Coal Regulation (台中市管制生煤自治條例), to address the problem.
These regulations required the power plant, Taichung’s largest fixed pollution source, to reduce its coal consumption by 40 percent over a period of four years.
In an effort to ensure the plant was able to achieve the goals we had set it for reducing its coal consumption, Lin did two things.
First, he shortened the license review period for the plant from every five years to every two years and second, at the time of the 2017 license review, the plant’s annual capacity allowance was reduced by 5 million tonnes, from 21 million to 16 million tonnes of coal.
It was the first time in the plant’s almost 30-year history that its coal consumption volume had been reduced.
This policy direction, and the policy tools applied to achieve it, were the correct way to address the problem, and the best way to ensure that the power plant was able to reduce its emissions.
This approach also allowed for plenty of time to adjust the national energy policy and the allocation of energy sources, which not only achieved the objective of reducing air pollution in Taichung, it also avoided risking energy shortages or uneven supply of electricity.
All in all, it was a systematic and practical set of measures to improve Taichung’s air pollution problem.
Fast forward to the present day and we have seen neither hide nor hair of a new policy or set of measures to improve the city’s pollution problems from Taichung Mayor Lu Shiow-yen (盧秀燕), who has been in office for a year.
How can she say that she is looking out for the best interests of Taichung’s residents? In the absence of her own policy to fight pollution, Lu needed only to continue her predecessor’s policy and ensure that the plant was abiding by the requirements set by law.
Instead, she decided to make a big political show of the whole situation and has had fines issued to make it look like she is doing something proactive.
The question is, what is this doing to actually address the pollution situation? Is this looking after the health of Taichung’s residents?
By coming down hard on the plant for exceeding its consumption quota she is trying to conceal her own incompetence and failure to improve the situation.
Compare this with the approach that Lin took.
He adopted a scientific approach, introducing a set of 86 pollution-reduction measures to a range of sources of pollution, which laid down an important foundation.
As a result of these initiatives, there is far less air pollution in Taichung.
I am confident that Taichung’s residents will be able to tell whether Lu is doing anything substantial to reduce the level of air pollution and really looking out for their health, or whether she is just staging political theater.
Hung Cheng-chung is convener of the Taiwan Environmental Righteousness Alliance and a former Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau director.
Translated by Paul Cooper
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