Lawmakers and environmentalists yesterday called on Premier William Lai (賴清德) to scrap a CPC Corp, Taiwan project to construct a third liquefied natural gas terminal, saying that the ecosystems at the planned site should not be sacrificed for the Cabinet’s ill-advised energy policies.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and New Power Party (NPP) legislators at a news conference at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei urged the government not to give the green light to the propsed terminal on the coast of Datan Borough (大潭) in Taoyuan’s Guanyin District (觀音).
An environmental impact assessment (EIA) committee on July 3 rejected the utility’s revised project plans.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
The Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) plans to re-evaluate the committee’s decision at a meeting today.
CPC is refusing to build the terminal at an alternative site because it wants to use the land in the Guantang Industrial Park that it purchased from Tung Ting Gas Corp (東鼎) for NT$2.28 billion (US$74.3 million), Taoyuan Local Union director-general Pan Chong-cheng (潘忠政) said.
The nation’s demand for natural gas is to start declining after 2022, so it is not worth building the terminal and sacrificing the ecosystem, Pan added.
Some experts have advised the utility to build the terminal at the Port of Taipei, while some CPC personnel have said they cannot delay the project due to pressure from high-ranking officials, KMT Legislator Arthur Chen (陳宜民) said.
NPP Legislator Hsu Yung-ming (徐永明) called on Lai not to manipulate the EIA process to cover up the Cabinet’s ill-advised energy policies, adding that EPA Minister Lee Ying-yuan (李應元) should protect the environment instead of just following his boss’ instructions.
Council of Agriculture Minister Lin Tsung-hsien (林聰賢) should designate the coast as a landscape protected under the Cultural Heritage Preservation Act (文化資產保存法), KMT Legislator Apollo Chen (陳學聖) said, while urging President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) to remember her 2013 promise to protect the reefs.
CPC has cut the development area from 232 to 23 hectares and proposed plans to avoid affecting endangered species, which is “certainly beneficial” for mitigating the potential impact, the EPA said.
Yangmingshan National Park authorities yesterday urged visitors to respect public spaces and obey the law after a couple was caught on a camera livestream having sex at the park’s Qingtiangang (擎天崗) earlier in the day. The Shilin Police Precinct in Taipei said it has identified a suspect and his vehicle registration number, and would summon him for questioning. The case would be handled in accordance with public indecency charges, it added. The couple entered the park at about 11pm on Thursday and began fooling around by 1am yesterday, the police said, adding that the two were unaware of the park’s all-day live
Yangmingshan National Park’s Qingtiangang (擎天崗) nature area has gone viral after a park livestream camera observed a couple in the throes of intimate congress, which was broadcast live on YouTube, drawing large late-night crowds and sparking a backlash over noise, bright lights and disruption to wildlife habitat. The area’s livestream footage appeared to show a couple engaging in sexual activity on a picnic table in the park on Friday last week, with the uncensored footage streamed publicly online. The footage quickly spread across social media, prompting a tide of visitors to travel to the site to “check in” and recreate the
Fast food chain McDonald's is to raise prices by up to NT$5 on some products at its restaurants across Taiwan, starting on Wednesday next week, the company announced today. The prices of all extra value meals and sharing boxes are to increase by NT$5, while breakfast combos and creamy corn soup would go up by NT$3, the company said in a statement. The price of the main items of those meals, if ordered individually, would remain the same. Meanwhile, the price of a medium-sized lemon iced tea and hot cappuccino would rise by NT$3, extra dipping sauces for chicken nuggets would go up
Minister of Digital Affairs Lin Yi-ching (林宜敬) yesterday cited regulatory issues and national security concerns as an expert said that Taiwan is among the few Asian regions without Starlink. Lin made the remarks on Facebook after funP Innovation Group chief executive officer Nathan Chiu (邱繼弘) on Friday said Taiwan and four other countries in Asia — China, North Korea, Afghanistan and Syria — have no access to Starlink. Starlink has become available in 166 countries worldwide, including Ukraine, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam, in the six years since it became commercial, he said. While China and North Korea block Starlink, Syria is not
RSS