The Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) has not penalized any factories for high carbon emissions despite listing carbon dioxide as an air pollutant in May 2012, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Tien Chiu-chin (田秋堇) said at a question-and-answer session in the legislature yesterday.
Citing an EPA announcement in which the agency determined that carbon dioxide was an air pollutant following studies showing its detrimental effect on the human body, Tien asked EPA Minister Wei Kuo-yen (魏國彥) why regulations governing carbon emissions had not been formulated.
Of all the air pollutants listed under the EPA’s control, only carbon emissions have not been regulated, she said, adding that the agency’s inaction has led some to view it as a “deity” protecting polluters.
Tien said several Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators have been blocking a review of a draft greenhouse gas reduction bill, even though President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) campaigned for re-election on a pledge to cut carbon emissions.
Some environmental protection groups have asked her to not table a review of the bill before the draft energy tax act is passed, another proposal that is being blocked by the KMT, said Tien, one of the two conveners of the Social Welfare and Environmental Hygiene Committee, the other being KMT Legislator Alicia Wang (王育敏).
Hence, the responsibility for tabling a review of the proposed greenhouse gas reduction bill falls on the “KMT committee convener,” Tien added.
In response, Wei said he would talk to KMT legislators to lobby for the review of the greenhouse gas emission bill, which would serve as the legal standard for greenhouse gas regulation after it is passed.
However, Tien expressed concern over the protracted legislative procedure and said that the EPA could set up regulations on penalties based on the Air Pollution Control Act (空氣汙染防制法) and start fining polluting factories.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
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Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching