Environmentalists yesterday demanded that steelmakers and petrochemical companies pay higher air pollution taxes, with the funds being used to conduct more reliable epidemiological studies on pollution’s effect on local residents.
Led by Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Liu Chien-kuo (劉建國), the Southern Taiwan Anti-Air Pollution Alliance held a public hearing in the Legislative Yuan in Taipei, where they demanded that authorities tighten control over stationary sources of pollution, particularly plants run by Formosa Petrochemical Corp, Taiwan Power Co and China Steel Corp.
Central and southern Taiwan have developed heavy industry clusters, yet studies on the risks to residents’ health from industrial pollution has been inadequate, alliance convener Chen Jiau-hua (陳椒華) said.
Liu helped obtained the National Health Research Institutes’ first report on pollution-related health effects in the heavily polluted Dalinpu (大林蒲) area of Kaohsiung.
However, the report concluded that benzene was the only source of pollution in the area and seemed to overlook other pollutants, such as heavy metals, Chen said.
The alliance hopes that proceeds from air pollution taxes could be used to conduct new studies, Chen said, adding that the plan had been met with objections by many Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) officials.
The alliance wants companies to contribute 5 percent of their revenue toward air improvement efforts, she said.
EPA Department of Air Quality Protection and Noise Control section chief Kuo Meng-yun (郭孟芸) said the department is planning to increase air pollution taxes, with plans to publish a proposal by the end of this month.
The department has proposed that charges for nitrogen oxide emissions be increased from anywhere between NT$8 to NT$12.5 per kilogram, and the pollution tax on gasoline be raised from NT$0.2 to NT$0.3 per liter and that for diesel fuel from NT$0.2 to NT$0.4 per liter, she said.
Environmentalists say the agency’s proposal would not be sufficient to curb air pollution.
“The EPA’s proposed taxes on stationary sources of pollution should be doubled,” Chen said, accusing the agency of covering for polluting industries.
Changhua Medical Alliance for Public Affairs director Tsai Chih-hung (蔡志宏) said that the EPA’s proposal is based on studies by Wu Yi-lin (吳義林), who misleadingly said that mobile sources are more contaminating than stationary ones,
Fight for Health Women’s Group Kaohsiung Chapter director Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀菊) questioned Wu’s reliability, as Wu is a board member of CHC Resources Corp, a subsidiary of China Steel.
Liu demanded that the EPA produce a report about the use and distribution of air pollution taxes over the past decade.
The Ministry of Health and Welfare and the National Health Research Institutes should publish reports about the effects of air pollution on residents within two weeks, he said.
Liu also called on the Industrial Development Bureau to publish reports about state-run companies’ efforts to improve air quality over the past five decades.
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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