Environmental groups yesterday demonstrated in front of the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA), saying the EPA sides with enterprises at the cost of the environment.
"We refuse to let business interests rule our government agencies!" the activists chanted.
Last Wednesday, Formosa Plastics Group's (FPG, 台塑集團) steel plant proposal in Yunlin County (雲林) underwent an environmental impact assessment (EIA), Green Party Taiwan (GPT) Secretary-General Pan Han-shen (潘翰聲) said. The meeting with FPG was requested to present data from environmental impact investigations and adjustments from a previous assessment, Pan said.
PHOTO: CNA
Yesterday the EPA representatives of the Taiwan Environmental Protection Union (TEPU), GPT and Taiwan Academy of Ecology said that from the EPA's track record, they feared the administration would based on FPG and pass the first assessment despite the fact that, "FPG is currently responsible for a quarter of Taiwan's greenhouse gas emissions."
"With the steel plant in operation, that figure would soar to a third, with an additional 15,000 tonnes of emissions annually," Pan said.
"At this rate, they would be emitting more emissions than all the homes, businesses and transportation around the nation combined," he added.
Former EPA environmental impact committee member Robin Winkler, who was also at the press conference, said that Yunlin County Council Speaker Su Chin-huang (
"As a foreigner who has done so much for Taiwan's environmental protection, I feel defeated that the government would condone violence against environmentalists," he said while showing his bruises from the alleged assault.
"Our demonstration is a result of being pushed over our threshold," TEPU Secretary-General Ho Tsung-hsun (何宗勳) said, citing incidents in the past year when environmentalists were arrested during demonstrations, prosecuted for protesting, and [Winkler] being physically assaulted.
"We can no longer tolerate this kind of treatment," he said.
"We are going to have a large-scale anti-global warming demonstration on Dec. 8," Pan said, adding that "we are determined to make the government hear our voices."
In response to the allegations, EPA Minister Winston Dang (
"We follow the same EIA regulations for any construction proposal," he said. "We respect environmentalists and invite them to speak at EIAs."
With regards to the alleged assault, Dang said that the case is now under investigation and that he would not comment because he wasn't present at the incident.
"We have done our best to respond; the EPA's limited police force did make efforts to pacify the conflicting parties at the time," he added.
TRAFFIC SAFETY RULES: A positive result in a drug test would result in a two-year license suspension for the driver and vehicle, and a fine of up to NT$180,000 The Ministry of Transportation and Communications is to authorize police to conduct roadside saliva tests by the end of the year to deter people from driving while under the influence of narcotics, it said yesterday. The ministry last month unveiled a draft of amended regulations governing traffic safety rules and penalties, which included provisions empowering police to conduct mandatory saliva tests on drivers. While currently rules authorize police to use oral fluid testing kits for signs of drug use, they do not establish penalties for noncompliance or operating procedures for officers to follow, the ministry said. The proposed changes to the regulations require
Taipei, New Taipei City, Keelung and Taoyuan would issue a decision at 8pm on whether to cancel work and school tomorrow due to forecasted heavy rain, Keelung Mayor Hsieh Kuo-liang (謝國樑) said today. Hsieh told reporters that absent some pressing reason, the four northern cities would announce the decision jointly at 8pm. Keelung is expected to receive between 300mm and 490mm of rain in the period from 2pm today through 2pm tomorrow, Central Weather Administration data showed. Keelung City Government regulations stipulate that school and work can be canceled if rain totals in mountainous or low-elevation areas are forecast to exceed 350mm in
EVA Airways president Sun Chia-ming (孫嘉明) and other senior executives yesterday bowed in apology over the death of a flight attendant, saying the company has begun improving its health-reporting, review and work coordination mechanisms. “We promise to handle this matter with the utmost responsibility to ensure safer and healthier working conditions for all EVA Air employees,” Sun said. The flight attendant, a woman surnamed Sun (孫), died on Friday last week of undisclosed causes shortly after returning from a work assignment in Milan, Italy, the airline said. Chinese-language media reported that the woman fell ill working on a Taipei-to-Milan flight on Sept. 22
1.4nm WAFERS: While TSMC is gearing up to expand its overseas production, it would also continue to invest in Taiwan, company chairman and CEO C.C. Wei said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) has applied for permission to construct a new plant in the Central Taiwan Science Park (中部科學園區), which it would use for the production of new high-speed wafers, the National Science and Technology Council said yesterday. The council, which supervises three major science parks in Taiwan, confirmed that the Central Taiwan Science Park Bureau had received an application on Friday from TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker, to commence work on the new A14 fab. A14 technology, a 1.4 nanometer (nm) process, is designed to drive artificial intelligence transformation by enabling faster computing and greater power
RSS