Asia Cement Corp and other mining companies that did not undergo an environmental review when their licenses came up for renewal are to be subject to environmental reviews following the revision of the Mining Act (礦業法), the Cabinet said yesterday.
Asia Cement gained permission for its mining operations in Hualien County 60 years ago, when there were no environmental review systems or environmental laws, Executive Yuan spokesman Hsu Kuo-yung (徐國勇) said.
The Cabinet is to submit a draft amendment to the Mining Act to require mining firms to make up for the environmental impact assessments they did not face because their mining projects were approved decades ago without such reviews, he said.
“They will not be redoing the environmental review, but making up for the review they missed because they have never been subject to one,” Hsu said.
Seventy to 80 mining projects will be required to face make-up reviews, he said.
The Cabinet’s action was prompted by increased public concern about mining practices following the death of documentary filmmaker Chi Po-lin (齊柏林) in a helicopter crash on Saturday last week, he said.
In his work, Chi had documented the mining operations of Asia Cement and a petition calling on the government to withdraw its renewal of Asia Cement’s mining license has collected more than 150,000 signatures in the wake of his death.
The draft amendment is to be listed as a priority bill in the next legislative session, which begins in September, as it could not be squeezed into the agenda of the extraordinary legislative session that began yesterday.
However, mining firms are allowed to continue operations during the review process, because they have already secured mining permits, Hsu said.
The National Park Act (國家公園法) was passed in 1972, Toroko National Park was established in November 1986 and the Environmental Protection Administration was established in August 1987.
Additional reporting by staff writer
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by
RSS