Premier Chang Chun-hsiung (
Accompanied by Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) head Lin Jun-yi (
PHOTO: CHUNG WEN-HAO, TAIPEI TIMES
Chang asked Lin to remain in Pingtung County to host today's expected visit of the Cabinet's task force formed to look into the spill.
Chang said that the Cabinet's Research, Development and Evaluation Commission (
"We'll just have to wait and see which agencies were to blame," Chang said.
According to the Marine Pollution Prevention Law, which went into effect last November, the EPA has the duty to establish a task force to handle oil spills immediately after such an incident happens. As certain regulations in the new law were judged insufficient, however, the Cabinet decided in early January that under the Mercantile Harbor Law (商港法), the Ministry of Transportation and Communications would be responsible for mounting salvage operations, including rescue work and cleaning up oil spilled by any ship, as was the case before.
Responding to concerns that the Third Nuclear Power Plant, located 10km from Lungkeng, would be affected by the spill, Chang said that the oil was actually concentrated mainly in an area some 800m from Lungkeng, to the east of the power station and had not spread.
Taiwan Power Co (台電) officials at the plant, however, started to deploy booms yesterday to protect water intakes against the slick.
"We are doing this as a precautionary measure. So far, we have seen nothing out of the ordinary as far as the spill in Lungkeng in concerned," said Li Wen-cheng (
Chang promised that the half-sunk ship would be removed by the Ministry of National Defense within a month to prevent the leakage of 200 tonnes of oil and 60,000 tonnes of iron ore that still remain on the ship.
About 200 cleanup workers remained at the site yesterday. Due to the desperate lack of manpower, the defense ministry announced that 600 soldiers from the 8th Army (八軍團) will be sent to the area to help speed up the task.
NO-LIMITS PARTNERSHIP: ‘The bottom line’ is that if the US were to have a conflict with China or Russia it would likely open up a second front with the other, a US senator said Beijing and Moscow could cooperate in a conflict over Taiwan, the top US intelligence chief told the US Senate this week. “We see China and Russia, for the first time, exercising together in relation to Taiwan and recognizing that this is a place where China definitely wants Russia to be working with them, and we see no reason why they wouldn’t,” US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told a US Senate Committee on Armed Services hearing on Thursday. US Senator Mike Rounds asked Haines about such a potential scenario. He also asked US Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse
INSPIRING: Taiwan has been a model in the Asia-Pacific region with its democratic transition, free and fair elections and open society, the vice president-elect said Taiwan can play a leadership role in the Asia-Pacific region, vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) told a forum in Taipei yesterday, highlighting the nation’s resilience in the face of geopolitical challenges. “Not only can Taiwan help, but Taiwan can lead ... not only can Taiwan play a leadership role, but Taiwan’s leadership is important to the world,” Hsiao told the annual forum hosted by the Center for Asia-Pacific Resilience and Innovation think tank. Hsiao thanked Taiwan’s international friends for their long-term support, citing the example of US President Joe Biden last month signing into law a bill to provide aid to Taiwan,
China’s intrusive and territorial claims in the Indo-Pacific region are “illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive,” new US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo said on Friday, adding that he would continue working with allies and partners to keep the area free and open. Paparo made the remarks at a change-of-command ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, where he took over the command from Admiral John Aquilino. “Our world faces a complex problem set in the troubling actions of the People’s Republic of China [PRC] and its rapid buildup of forces. We must be ready to answer the PRC’s increasingly intrusive and
STATE OF THE NATION: The legislature should invite the president to deliver an address every year, the TPP said, adding that Lai should also have to answer legislators’ questions The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday proposed inviting president-elect William Lai (賴清德) to make a historic first state of the nation address at the legislature following his inauguration on May 20. Lai is expected to face many domestic and international challenges, and should clarify his intended policies with the public’s representatives, KMT caucus secretary-general Hung Meng-kai (洪孟楷) said when making the proposal at a meeting of the legislature’s Procedure Committee. The committee voted to add the item to the agenda for Friday, along with another similar proposal put forward by the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP). The invitation is in line with Article 15-2