Thousands of people yesterday marched in Kaohsiung against air pollution, calling on the city government to regulate coal burning and scrap a planned petrochemical plant near an elementary school.
The march started at Kaohsiung MRT Central Park Station at 1pm, from where protesters made their way to Kaohsiung City Hall.
It was the second of three marches against air pollution planned for this month and drew nearly 5,000 people, event organizer Southern Taiwan Anti-Air Pollution Alliance convener Chen Jiau-hua (陳椒華) said.
Photo: Wang Jung-hsiang, Taipei Times
The alliance has five demands: that the city government limit local plants’ coal use; a trade mechanism between stationary and mobile pollution sources stipulated in the Air Pollution Control Act (空氣污染防制法) be abolished; China Steel Corp (中鋼, CSC) transform its coke wet quenching tower into a dry one; Taiwan Power Co (台電) convert coal-fired units at the city’s Sinda (興達) and Dalin (大林) power plants to gas-fired ones; and that Taiwan-Japan Oxo Chemical Industries Inc (曄揚) scrap a plan to build petrochemical plant 200m from an elementary school, it said.
Kaohsiung mayoral candidates Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) of the Democratic Progressive Party and Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) also joined the march.
Proposing several plans to alleviate air pollution, Chen said that if elected, he would re-evaluate the allowable and actual emission levels for local factories, use artificial intelligence to predict and control air quality, establish an air quality regulation committee and transform the heavily polluted Kaohsiung into a green and livable city.
Photo: CNA
Han, along with KMT Tainan mayoral candidate Kao Su-po (高思博), pasted stickers bearing angry facial expressions onto Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) Minister Lee Ying-yuan’s (李應元) image in front of city hall.
The EPA and the Kaohsiung Bureau of Environmental Protection both issued statements responding to the appeals.
The Sinda plant’s four coal-fired units would be decommissioned by 2023 and 2024 at the earliest, and it would be equipped with three gas-fired units that would become operational from 2023, the EPA said, adding that the Dalin plant is planing to install ultra-supercritical coal-fired units to reduce pollution.
CSC is planning to build a dry coke quenching tower as the alliance has suggested, the EPA said.
The agency did not accept the protesters’ request to abolish the pollution trade mechanism, but said it has imposed regulations to regulate the trade and a 10-year sunset clause.
Establishing new regulations for coal use is not feasible, considering that the Yunlin County Government’s regulations were not approved by the Executive Yuan and those of the Taichung City Government do not stipulate any penalties for violators, the bureau said.
Instead, it has restricted power plants’ coal use by reducing the maximum amount of coal use in their permits, the bureau said.
Since the Kaohsiung City Government’s Regulation Standards for Air Pollutants Emitted by Burning Facilities (燃燒設備空氣污染物排放標準) took effect in July, it has required 2,282 facilities to bring their emissions to the level of gas-fired facilities, thereby eliminating 1,900 tonnes of sulfur oxides emissions and 480 tonnes of nitrogen oxides emissions as of September, the bureau said.
State-run factories and top 20 polluters in the city have also eliminated 5,736 tonnes of emissions in the first nine months of this year, it added.
The bureau said it would continue to strictly supervise Taiwan-Japan Oxo Chemical’s construction project and require it to continue communicating with local residents.
The company is CPC Corp, Taiwan’s (台灣中油) joint venture with Japanese petrochemical firm KH Neochem Co, whose plant is expected to be completed by the end of 2020.
Additional reporting by Tsai Ching-hua
UKRAINE, NVIDIA: The US leader said the subject of Russia’s war had come up ‘very strongly,’ while Jenson Huang was hoping that the conversation was good Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and US President Donald Trump had differing takes following their meeting in Busan, South Korea, yesterday. Xi said that the two sides should complete follow-up work as soon as possible to deliver tangible results that would provide “peace of mind” to China, the US and the rest of the world, while Trump hailed the “great success” of the talks. The two discussed trade, including a deal to reduce tariffs slapped on China for its role in the fentanyl trade, as well as cooperation in ending the war in Ukraine, among other issues, but they did not mention
CALL FOR SUPPORT: President William Lai called on lawmakers across party lines to ensure the livelihood of Taiwanese and that national security is protected President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday called for bipartisan support for Taiwan’s investment in self-defense capabilities at the christening and launch of two coast guard vessels at CSBC Corp, Taiwan’s (台灣國際造船) shipyard in Kaohsiung. The Taipei (台北) is the fourth and final ship of the Chiayi-class offshore patrol vessels, and the Siraya (西拉雅) is the Coast Guard Administration’s (CGA) first-ever ocean patrol vessel, the government said. The Taipei is the fourth and final ship of the Chiayi-class offshore patrol vessels with a displacement of about 4,000 tonnes, Lai said. This ship class was ordered as a result of former president Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) 2018
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi yesterday lavished US President Donald Trump with praise and vows of a “golden age” of ties on his visit to Tokyo, before inking a deal with Washington aimed at securing critical minerals. Takaichi — Japan’s first female prime minister — pulled out all the stops for Trump in her opening test on the international stage and even announced that she would nominate him for a Nobel Peace Prize, the White House said. Trump has become increasingly focused on the Nobel since his return to power in January and claims to have ended several conflicts around the world,
GLOBAL PROJECT: Underseas cables ‘are the nervous system of democratic connectivity,’ which is under stress, Member of the European Parliament Rihards Kols said The government yesterday launched an initiative to promote global cooperation on improved security of undersea cables, following reported disruptions of such cables near Taiwan and around the world. The Management Initiative on International Undersea Cables aims to “bring together stakeholders, align standards, promote best practices and turn shared concerns into beneficial cooperation,” Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said at a seminar in Taipei. The project would be known as “RISK,” an acronym for risk mitigation, information sharing, systemic reform and knowledge building, he said at the seminar, titled “Taiwan-Europe Subsea Cable Security Cooperation Forum.” Taiwan sits at a vital junction on
RSS