Activists yesterday urged the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) to reject the Central Taiwan Science Park’s Houli expansion project during an environmental impact assessment (EIA) meeting next week, warning they would file a lawsuit to overturn the decision and cause more losses to investing firms.
Although a court ruling in January revoked the EIA granted in 2006 for construction of the complex in Houli Township (后里), Taichung County, following a lawsuit filed by environmental groups three years ago, the EPA said that as the court only revoked the result of the EIA, the Houli project does not have to go through the whole EIA process again.
On Wednesday, the EPA gave its initial approval in an EIA meeting — considered a “continuing meeting” — and is expected to make a final decision on Tuesday.
“The meeting should not [result in] approval for such a controversial project. [If it does] we will again file an appeal to overturn the decision in court,” Lin San-chia (林三加), a lawyer representing the environmentalists, told a press conference at the legislature.
“When the ruling comes in a few years — which we believe we’ll win — it would cost more losses to the companies that have invested so much money in the project,” he said.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Tien Chiu-chin (田秋堇) berated the EPA for saying the project only needs to present the results of another EIA rather than going through the whole process again.
“When a decision by the government is revoked by the court, it means the whole thing is revoked, not just the result,” Tien said. “How can the EPA, a government agency, twist a court ruling and humiliate the court like this?”
Wild at Heart Legal Defense Foundation chairman Robin Winkler (文魯彬) said that if the government was so “pro-business” and unwilling to respect the law, “it would not be able to attract good, responsible businesses from abroad to invest, but only the worst, because they know the government would help them do anything they want.”
Meanwhile, environmental activists and researchers yesterday questioned the accuracy of an EIA presented by Kuokuang Petrochemical Corp.
Gloria Hsu (徐光蓉) of National Taiwan University (NTU), who is also a member of the Taiwan Environmental Protection Union (TEPU), told a press conference that the union would soon publish a brochure titled The Illusory Petrochemical Kingdom to highlight the major mistakes and unanswered questions in the report.
The pamphlet was written by Hsu, Lin Pi-yao (林碧堯) of Tunghai University, Chou Chin-cheng (周晉澄) and Wu Ching-chi (吳清吉) of NTU, as well as other TEPU members.
TEPU said the petrochemical company’s claim that it would create 692,000 jobs once operations began was proof it was exaggerating its statistics.
According to the 2009 Human Resources Report by the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS), the chemical and petrochemical industries accounted for a total of 268,000 jobs.
“Does the work force also include the ladies that sell betel nuts outside the factory?” Hsu asked.
Hsu said Kuokuang’s report showed that its scale of operations would be comparable to Formosa Petrochemical Corp’s naphtha cracker in Mailiao (麥寮). Formosa Petrochemical has said its naphtha cracker emits 40 million tonnes of carbon dioxide annually, but Kuokuang said its annual emissions would only be 12 million tonnes.
Hsu said Taiwan imports almost all of its energy sources, with the petrochemical industry consuming about one-third of this but contributing only about 4 percent of GDP.
“We’re not asking that the petrochemical industry be reduced to nothing,” Hsu said. “But the petrochemical sector already takes up a large share of the nation’s industry and should not be expanded anymore.”
Lin also said Kuokuang would not be using new production processes and could cause severe pollution.
He said the government was only thinking in terms of profit from the sale of petrochemical products to China under the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA), a strategy that would cause serious suffering to Taiwanese.
Yangmingshan National Park authorities yesterday urged visitors to respect public spaces and obey the law after a couple was caught on a camera livestream having sex at the park’s Qingtiangang (擎天崗) earlier in the day. The Shilin Police Precinct in Taipei said it has identified a suspect and his vehicle registration number, and would summon him for questioning. The case would be handled in accordance with public indecency charges, it added. The couple entered the park at about 11pm on Thursday and began fooling around by 1am yesterday, the police said, adding that the two were unaware of the park’s all-day live
A former soldier and an active-duty army officer were yesterday indicted for allegedly selling classified military training materials to a Chinese intelligence operative for a total of NT$79,440. The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office indicted Chen Tai-yin (陳泰尹) and Lee Chun-ta (李俊達) for contravening the National Security Act (國家安全法) and the Anti-Corruption Act (貪污治罪條例). Chen left the military in September 2013 after serving alongside then-staff sergeant Lee, now an army lieutenant, at the 21st Artillery Command of the army’s Sixth Corps from 2011 to 2013, according to the indictment. Chen met a Chinese intelligence operative identified as “Wang” (王) through a friend in November
Minister of Digital Affairs Lin Yi-ching (林宜敬) yesterday cited regulatory issues and national security concerns as an expert said that Taiwan is among the few Asian regions without Starlink. Lin made the remarks on Facebook after funP Innovation Group chief executive officer Nathan Chiu (邱繼弘) on Friday said Taiwan and four other countries in Asia — China, North Korea, Afghanistan and Syria — have no access to Starlink. Starlink has become available in 166 countries worldwide, including Ukraine, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam, in the six years since it became commercial, he said. While China and North Korea block Starlink, Syria is not
The Grand Hotel Taipei has rejected media reports claiming that the hotel had prevented CBS from broadcasting coverage of the Beijing summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on its premises. Media reports alleging that the hotel owner, dissatisfied with CBS’s coverage, prohibited the network from broadcasting political content on the hotel premises, are not true, the hotel said in a statement issued last night. The reports were “inconsistent with how the hotel actually handled the matter,” it said. The hotel said it received a refund request from a
RSS