Civic groups yesterday called on the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) to reject construction plans for the coal-fired Shenao Power Plant (深澳電廠), saying the project would worsen the air quality in the north.
Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) plans to install two ultra-supercritical coal-fired generators with 600 megawatts of capacity each at the plant in New Taipei City’s Rueifang District (瑞芳).
The EPA is to hold an environmental impact assessment (EIA) grand assembly tomorrow to review the project, after an EIA committee meeting on Jan. 29 advised the agency to either require the developer to conduct a new EIA or to approve the project after asking it to submit supplementary documentation.
The project passed an EIA in 2006, but the utility last year applied for an environmental impact difference review after making changes to the plan. However, many groups are calling it a new construction project, given that the plant stopped operations in 2007.
The government plans to reduce the percentage of the nation’s energy generated from coal to 30 percent from the current 45.4 percent by 2025, meaning that demand for coal-fired power is declining and the plant is unnecessary, Greenpeace Taiwan campaigner Lisa Tsai (蔡佩芸) told a news conference in Taipei.
To stabilize the power supply, the nation needs more energy-saving facilities and better management of power supply and demand, not another coal-fired power plant, Green Citizens’ Action Alliance deputy secretary-general Hung Shen-han (洪申翰) said.
The project’s breakwaters and coal delivery harbor would damage the habitats of algae and animals on the seabed, independent ecological researcher Liang Yi-shuo (梁珆碩) said, adding that the artificial structures would also ruin the northeastern region’s coastline and geological continuity.
Warm water discharged from the plant would also affect the coral reefs along Shenao Bay (深澳灣), he added.
“The New Taipei City Government is not opposed to the construction of a power plant, but it rejects the idea that Taipower regards coal-fired power as its only option,” the city’s Environmental Protection Department said in a statement.
The city’s efforts to improve air quality have proved fruitful, with its annual average concentration of PM2.5 — fine particulate matter measuring 2.5 micrometers or smaller — having decreased to 17.1 micrograms per cubic meter last year from 24.63 micrograms per cubic meter in 2013, the department said, adding the plant’s operation would offset its endeavor.
The utility should carefully reassess the viability of the project, given that it was launched about 10 years ago, when the nation had not yet established standards for PM2.5 and greenhouse emissions reduction, it said, urging the utility to conduct a new EIA and adopt cleaner energy generation methods.
A 72-year-old man in Kaohsiung was sentenced to 40 days in jail after he was found having sex with a 67-year-old woman under a slide in a public park on Sunday afternoon. At 3pm on Sunday, a mother surnamed Liang (梁) was with her child at a neighborhood park when they found the man, surnamed Tsai (蔡), and woman, surnamed Huang (黃), underneath the slide. Liang took her child away from the scene, took photographs of the two and called the police, who arrived and arrested the couple. During questioning, Tsai told police that he had met Huang that day and offered to
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BETTER SERVICE QUALITY: From Nov. 10, tickets with reserved seats would only be valid for the date, train and route specified on the ticket, THSRC said Starting on Nov. 10, high-speed rail passengers with reserved seats would be required to exchange their tickets to board an earlier train. Passengers with reserved seats on a specific train are currently allowed to board earlier trains on the same day and sit in non-reserved cars, but as this is happening increasingly often, and affecting quality of travel and ticket sales, Taiwan High-Speed Rail Corp (THSRC) announced that it would be canceling the policy on Nov. 10. It is one of several new measures launched by THSRC chairman Shih Che (史哲) to improve the quality of service, it said. The company also said
A total lunar eclipse, an astronomical event often referred to as a “blood moon,” would be visible to sky watchers in Taiwan starting just before midnight on Sunday night, the Taipei Astronomical Museum said. The phenomenon is also called “blood moon” due to the reddish-orange hue it takes on as the Earth passes directly between the sun and the moon, completely blocking direct sunlight from reaching the lunar surface. The only light is refracted by the Earth’s atmosphere, and its red wavelengths are bent toward the moon, illuminating it in a dramatic crimson light. Describing the event as the most important astronomical phenomenon
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