Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) Deputy Minister Chan Shun-kuei (詹順貴) resigned yesterday, saying he refused to cave in to pressure from Premier William Lai (賴清德) to sway the agency’s environmental impact assessment (EIA) system.
Chan was a noted environmental attorney prior to being asked to join the Cabinet by then-premier Lin Chuan (林全) after President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) administration took office in May 2016 .
Chan first tendered his resignation after Lin stepped down and was replaced by Lai in September last year, citing what he said was Lai’s frequent defiance of democratic principles during his time as Tainan mayor, but was persuaded by Tsai to stay.
Photo: CNA
Amending the Air Pollution Control Act (空氣污染防制法) and the Environmental Impact Assessment Act (環境影響評估法) were the primary reasons he agreed to join the Cabinet, Chan wrote on Facebook yesterday morning.
However, over the past year, officials have not been allowed to thoroughly discuss policies at Executive Yuan meetings, he wrote.
While his goals have not been fully realized, the credibility of the EIA system is being undermined by pressure from Lai, which made him feel ashamed for not being able to accomplish his duties and led to his decision to leave, he wrote.
His announcement came four hours before the EPA’s EIA grand assembly was to open to review CPC Corp, Taiwan’s (台灣中油) plan to construct a third liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal in Taoyuan.
Chan said he was not trying to influence the assembly with his resignation.
He thanked Tsai, Lin and EPA Minister Lee Ying-yuan (李應元) for supporting his decision, while apologizing for any inconvenience his resignation might cause.
At a news conference about the terminal project yesterday afternoon, Lee praised Chan’s contributions over the past two years and said that he was reluctant to let Chan go.
Later in the day, Executive Yuan spokeswoman Kolas Yotaka confirmed that Chan’s resignation had been approved.
The Executive Yuan understood the stress he was under from environmental groups’ criticism of his role in the EIA approval for the proposed Shenao thermal power plant in New Taipei City, she said in a statement.
Although the CPC’s LNG terminal project is crucial for the government to achieve its “nuclear-free homeland by 2025” policy, the Executive Yuan did not disregard environmental protection principles in its promotion of the project, she added.
The Air Pollution Control Act was amended and promulgated in August. The draft amendments to the EIA act were published by the EPA in September last year, but were not listed as a priority bill in the legislative session that began on Sept. 21.
Two US House of Representatives committees yesterday condemned China’s attempt to orchestrate a crash involving Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim’s (蕭美琴) car when she visited the Czech Republic last year as vice president-elect. Czech local media in March last year reported that a Chinese diplomat had run a red light while following Hsiao’s car from the airport, and Czech intelligence last week told local media that Chinese diplomats and agents had also planned to stage a demonstrative car collision. Hsiao on Saturday shared a Reuters news report on the incident through her account on social media platform X and wrote: “I
STILL ON THE TABLE: The government is not precluding advanced nuclear power generation if it is proven safer and the nuclear waste issue is solved, the premier said Taiwan is willing to be in step with the world by considering new methods of nuclear energy generation and to discuss alternative approaches to provide more stable power generation and help support industries, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said yesterday. The government would continue to develop diverse and green energy solutions, which include considering advances in nuclear energy generation, he added. Cho’s remarks echoed President William Lai’s (賴清德) comments in an interview last month, saying the government is not precluding “advanced and newer nuclear power generation” if it is proven to be safer and the issue of nuclear waste is resolved. Lai’s comment had
‘BUILDING PARTNERSHIPS’: The US military’s aim is to continue to make any potential Chinese invasion more difficult than it already is, US General Ronald Clark said The likelihood of China invading Taiwan without contest is “very, very small” because the Taiwan Strait is under constant surveillance by multiple countries, a US general has said. General Ronald Clark, commanding officer of US Army Pacific (USARPAC), the US Army’s largest service component command, made the remarks during a dialogue hosted on Friday by Washington-based think tank the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Asked by the event host what the Chinese military has learned from its US counterpart over the years, Clark said that the first lesson is that the skill and will of US service members are “unmatched.” The second
STANDING TOGETHER: Amid China’s increasingly aggressive activities, nations must join forces in detecting and dealing with incursions, a Taiwanese official said Two senior Philippine officials and one former official yesterday attended the Taiwan International Ocean Forum in Taipei, the first high-level visit since the Philippines in April lifted a ban on such travel to Taiwan. The Ocean Affairs Council hosted the two-day event at the National Taiwan University Hospital International Convention Center. Philippine Navy spokesman Rear Admiral Roy Vincent Trinidad, Coast Guard spokesman Grand Commodore Jay Tarriela and former Philippine Presidential Communications Office assistant secretary Michel del Rosario participated in the forum. More than 100 officials, experts and entrepreneurs from 15 nations participated in the forum, which included discussions on countering China’s hybrid warfare