Taiwan Power Co’s (Taipower) proposal to build a coal-fired power plant in Changhua County yesterday was rejected for the second time in the project’s 12-year history, while the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) suspended discussion of the company’s decommissioning plan for the Jinshan Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City as it was deemed to be “ill-defined.”
Taipower’s plan to build a two-generator plant in the Changhua Coastal Industrial Park was first submitted for review in 2004. Between 2004 and 2007, the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) committee concluded that the project should be rejected.
However, before the EPA could formally adopt the committee’s decision, Taipower withdrew its submission to prevent a wholesale rejection.
The company resubmitted the project in 2008, almost unchanged from its original submission, and in January, the EIA committee rejected the project, as the project does not conform to environment and national energy development plans.
At yesterday’s grand assembly, dozens of protesters criticized the Changhua project, saying the county is surrounded by the Taichung Power Plant and Formosa Plastics Group’s naphtha cracker factory in Yunlin, adding that the proposed plant would only worsen pollution.
After an hour of closed-door deliberations, the assembly rejected the proposal and asked the Ministry of Economic Affairs to reject the company’s development application.
The assembly was also set to review Taipower’s request to have plans to decommission the Jinshan plant go directly to second-phase EIA reviews, but the assembly suspended the review as the plan was unclear.
The 25-year decommissioning plan includes eight years of facility decontamination, 12 years of plant demolition, three years of monitoring and two years of site restoration.
The German city of Hamburg on Oct. 14 named a bridge “Kaohsiung-Brucke” after the Taiwanese city of Kaohsiung. The footbridge, formerly known as F566, is to the east of the Speicherstadt, the world’s largest warehouse district, and connects the Dar-es-Salaam-Platz to the Brooktorpromenade near the Port of Hamburg on the Elbe River. Timo Fischer, a Free Democratic Party member of the Hamburg-Mitte District Assembly, in May last year proposed the name change with support from members of the Social Democratic Party and the Christian Democratic Union. Kaohsiung and Hamburg in 1999 inked a sister city agreement, but despite more than a quarter-century of
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday expressed “grave concerns” after Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財) reiterated the city-state’s opposition to “Taiwanese independence” during a meeting with Chinese Premier Li Qiang (李強). In Singapore on Saturday, Wong and Li discussed cross-strait developments, the Singaporean Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. “Prime Minister Wong reiterated that Singapore has a clear and consistent ‘one China’ policy and is opposed to Taiwan independence,” it said. MOFA responded that it is an objective fact and a common understanding shared by many that the Republic of China (ROC) is an independent, sovereign nation, with world-leading
The Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau (MJIB) has been investigating nine shell companies working with Prince Holding Group, and the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office is seeking further prosecution of alleged criminals, a source said yesterday. The nine companies and three Taiwanese nationals were named by the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) on Oct. 14 as Specially Designated Nationals as a result of a US federal court indictment. Prince Holding founder Chen Zhi (陳志) has been charged with fraud, conspiracy, money laundering and overseeing Prince Holding’s suspected forced-labor camps in Cambodia, the indictment says. Intelligence shared between Taiwan,
COOLING OFF: Temperatures are expected to fall to lows of about 20°C on Sunday and possibly 18°C to 19°C next week, following a wave of northeasterly winds on Friday The Central Weather Administration (CWA) on Sunday forecast more rain and cooler temperatures for northern Taiwan this week, with the mercury dropping to lows of 18°C, as another wave of northeasterly winds sweeps across the country. The current northeasterly winds would continue to affect Taiwan through today, with precipitation peaking today, bringing increased rainfall to windward areas, CWA forecaster Liu Pei-teng (劉沛滕) said. The weather system would weaken slightly tomorrow before another, stronger wave arrives on Friday, lasting into next week, Liu said. From yesterday to today, northern Taiwan can expect cool, wet weather, with lows of 22°C to 23°C in most areas,
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