The controversy over the Central Taiwan Science Park continued yesterday as Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) Minister Stephen Shen (沈世宏) and lawmakers became involved in a yelling match over the legitimacy of the project.
Shen insisted the administration had done nothing wrong by allowing companies to continue construction work, placing the blame for any problems on the previous Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government, while DPP legislators chided the EPA for not respecting a court verdict ruling in 2005 that invalidated the result of an environmental impact assessment (EIA) for the project.
The court said that the EIA committee should have conducted a second review before giving the green light for the construction because of concerns about possible “serious health consequences” for local residents if the project were to go ahead as planned.
PHOTO: FANG PIN-CHAO, TAIPEI TIMES
DPP Legislator Tien Chiu-chin (田秋堇) and several environmental protection groups have repeatedly accused the EPA, including Shen, of defying the ruling by permitting companies to carry on with the construction.
Earlier this year, the EPA took out a half-page advertisement on the front page of the four major newspapers to justify its actions.
“The court only invalidated the result of the EIA report, but said nothing about revoking any building permits. As long as the companies agree to conduct a health and environmental risk assessment, it is legal for them to continue construction work,” Shen said during yesterday’s Sanitation, Environment and Social Welfare Committee meeting.
Article 14 of the EIA Act (環境影響評估法) is only applicable to developments and commercial operations that have never been approved by an EIA review committee, he said.
Companies that do not pass the second review will only then be stripped of building permits, the EPA added.
Tien fired back, saying Shen, as the man in charge of the country’s environmental issues, should abide by the law and stop trying to find loopholes.
“If a person was found guilty of getting his driver’s license by cheating on his vision test, shouldn’t his licence be revoked? What the EPA is saying is the person can keep his license and continue to drive until he takes a second test. His license will be revoked only after he fails the second test,” she said.
Appearing to be agitated by Tien’s remarks, Shen cut her off several times and said any wrongdoing was the fault of the previous administration and that the EPA was a law-abiding agency.
DPP Legislator Huang Sue-ying (黃淑英), called Shen “arrogant,” while DPP Legislator Chen Chieh-ju (陳節如) called for the minister’s immediate resignation for ignoring the rights of local residents in order to appease big corporations.
No consensus was reached.
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