Alleging the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) deliberately kept important cases off the Environmental Impact Assessment Committee's (EIAC) agenda, a member of the committee protested outside the agency yesterday rather than attend the committee's last meeting.
Gloria Hsu (徐光蓉), Taiwan Environmental Protection Union chairwoman, said the EPA's "stalling tactics" means that environmental damaging construction projects likely to be rejected by committee could be approved by the next committee, whose members have yet to be convened.
Each EIAC has a two-year tenure, after which a new committee is selected by the head of the EPA.
PHOTO: CNA
"What is the point of attending the meeting?" Hsu said.
"Only five insignificant cases are discussed while many important cases that should have been brought before the committee languished," she said.
She was joined by former committee member Thomas Chan (
Both Hsu and Chan tied pieces of red fabric bearing the words "Environmental assessment is already dead," around their forehead.
Hsu accused the EPA of avoiding placing cases such as Formosa Plastic Groups' steelworks, the conjunctive utilization plan of Surface water and groundwater in the Chuoshui River alluvial fan and others before the current committee.
"They want to drag these cases out so that they will not go before this committee," Hsu said.
"I heard that our committee has been dubbed `the obstacle committee,'" he said.
"Are they delaying important cases from coming before the committee until it reconvenes with more business-friendly members?" Hsu said, "Why else are the keeping important cases from being heard?"
Also at the protest was the secretary-general of the TEPU, Ho Tsung-hsun (
"The EPA is derelict in its duty to protect the environment in Taiwan," Ho said, describing the agency as a "soft-legged shrimp" in the case of the sixth naphtha plant.
The agency previously meted out fines in March that was subsequently revoked by the Executive Yuan, Ho said.
At yesterday's press conference, EPA Deputy Director Chang Tzi-chin (張子敬) said the tenure of the current committee was about to end, meaning that there would not be enough time for the case of the sixth naphtha plant to come before it. However, Chang said the new limits will not necessarily be the 351,000 ton limit approved by the Industrial Development Bureau of the Ministry of Economic Affairs.
"It is up to the new committee, yet to be convened, to decide what the upper limit of water use could be for the sixth naphtha plant," Chang said.
Although fellow committee member Robin Winkler did not join Hsu's protest and attended the yesterday's meeting, he did offer a show of solidarity.
Coming down from the 13th floor where the meeting took place, Winkler ripped up a copy of the Basic Environmental Act (
Taiwan would benefit from more integrated military strategies and deployments if the US and its allies treat the East China Sea, the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea as a “single theater of operations,” a Taiwanese military expert said yesterday. Shen Ming-shih (沈明室), a researcher at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said he made the assessment after two Japanese military experts warned of emerging threats from China based on a drill conducted this month by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) Eastern Theater Command. Japan Institute for National Fundamentals researcher Maki Nakagawa said the drill differed from the
‘WORSE THAN COMMUNISTS’: President William Lai has cracked down on his political enemies and has attempted to exterminate all opposition forces, the chairman said The legislature would motion for a presidential recall after May 20, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday at a protest themed “against green communists and dictatorship” in Taipei. Taiwan is supposed to be a peaceful homeland where people are united, but President William Lai (賴清德) has been polarizing and tearing apart society since his inauguration, Chu said. Lai must show his commitment to his job, otherwise a referendum could be initiated to recall him, he said. Democracy means the rule of the people, not the rule of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), but Lai has failed to fulfill his
OFF-TARGET: More than 30,000 participants were expected to take part in the Games next month, but only 6,550 foreign and 19,400 Taiwanese athletes have registered Taipei city councilors yesterday blasted the organizers of next month’s World Masters Games over sudden timetable and venue changes, which they said have caused thousands of participants to back out of the international sporting event, among other organizational issues. They also cited visa delays and political interference by China as reasons many foreign athletes are requesting refunds for the event, to be held from May 17 to 30. Jointly organized by the Taipei and New Taipei City governments, the games have been rocked by numerous controversies since preparations began in 2020. Taipei City Councilor Lin Yen-feng (林延鳳) said yesterday that new measures by
A rally held by opposition parties yesterday demonstrates that Taiwan is a democratic country, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday, adding that if opposition parties really want to fight dictatorship, they should fight it on Tiananmen Square in Beijing. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) held a protest with the theme “against green communists and dictatorship,” and was joined by the Taiwan People’s Party. Lai said the opposition parties are against what they called the “green communists,” but do not fight against the “Chinese communists,” adding that if they really want to fight dictatorship, they should go to the right place and face
RSS