Taichung’s air quality did not improve as much as the government has claimed, as it only ranked eighth among all municipalities with regard to its reduction of airborne particles last year, Air Clean Taiwan chairman Yeh Guang-perng (葉光芃) said at a march in Taichung yesterday, where protesters demanded clean air.
The group said that about 4,000 people attended the event, which was the last of three large-scale demonstrations against air pollution this month.
Participants marched in the afternoon from Taichung Civic Square to the plaza in front of the Taichung City Hall.
Photo: Liao Yao-tung, Taipei Times
Demanding an environment with no coal, the group urged the government to decommission Taichung Power Plant’s 10 coal-fired units and not to interfere with environmental impact assessment procedures as it said Premier William Lai (賴清德) had done last month by pushing through CPC Corp, Taiwan’s plan to build a third liquefied natural gas terminal in Taoyuan.
While the Environmental Protection Administration on Saturday said the city’s air quality has improved by 18 percent since 2015, Yeh said the city’s reduction of PM2.5 — fine particulate matter measuring 2.5 micrometers or smaller — was surpassed by Tainan and Chiayi City, as well as Kinmen, Nantou, Yunlin, Changhua and Chiayi counties.
Taichung Mayor Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍), of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), on Saturday said that he would not attend the protest.
Photo: Liao Yao-tung, Taipei Times
The city government has strived to curb pollution by cutting 5 million tonnes of coal use and has pushed local manufacturers to upgrade their pollution control facilities, said Lin, who is seeking re-election.
Instead of attending the march, Lin yesterday hosted an inauguration ceremony for a landfill that has been turned into a solar power plant, Taichung City Government spokesman Cho Kuan-ting (卓冠廷) said, adding that the city government would continue cut coal use and promote “green” energy to mitigate air pollution.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taichung mayoral candidate Lu Shiow-yen (盧秀燕) and Nantou County Commissioner Lin Ming-chen (林明溱), who is seeking re-election, took part in the demonstration.
Taichung’s air pollution is cause by the DPP’s ill-advised energy policies that allow the coal-fired power plant to continue running, Lu said, adding that it is sad to see how the health of residents in central municipalities is sacrificed when part of power produced at the plant is sent to the north.
Despite its beautiful natural views, Nantou’s air quality is often worse than Taichung, with 240 county residents killed by lung cancer last year, Lin Ming-chen said, urging the DPP to improve air quality to prevent more pollution-related deaths.
The first two F-16V Block 70 jets Taiwan purchased from the US were spotted unexpectedly turning back after departing from Hawaii yesterday, potentially further delaying delivery of the aircraft. Taiwan has purchased 66 of the F-16 C/D Block 70 jets to be deployed at Chihhang Air Base (志航基地) in Taitung County and operated by the air force's 7th Tactical Fighter Wing to defend Taiwan’s eastern region. Two single-seat jets, bearing serial No. 6727 and 6728, were spotted taking off from Hickam Field in Hawaii yesterday, observers said. Based on the precedent set during the delivery of Taiwan's older F-16 Block 20s, the new
Taiwan’s growing defense preparations might be sending a stronger signal to the US than to Beijing, highlighting the need for Taipei to tailor its deterrence efforts to different audiences, a US security academic said yesterday. Stanford University Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies fellow Oriana Skylar Mastro made the comment during a Taipei Security Dialogue panel examining lessons Taiwan could draw from the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East. Mastro said she was impressed by Taiwan’s increased defense spending, emphasis on asymmetric capabilities and efforts to prepare society for conflict, but questioned whom those initiatives were influencing. She said when she asked
A sharp rise in compensation to be paid by air force officers who leave before completing their required service could indicate an increase in pilots leaving the military early, an analyst said on Friday, warning that the trend could worsen a shortage of experienced personnel. Chieh Chung (揭仲), a researcher at the Association for Strategic Foresight, issued the warning even though the number of volunteer military personnel is expected to increase next year. The planned headcount for volunteer military personnel, covering officers, noncommissioned officers (NCO) and enlisted soldiers, is 158,223 for next year, up 4,258 from 153,965 this year, Chieh said. The increase
Potential improvements to munitions used by China’s long-range rocket-artillery units could extend their range to cover the entire Miyako Strait, which might give the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) the ability to secure the strategic waterway, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said in a report. The PLA’s long-range rocket-artillery units deployed along the Taiwan Strait are concentrated along the coast of Fujian Province, including Changle, Pingtan and Shishi, the quarterly report on China said. The artillery brigades of the PLA’s 71st, 72nd and 73rd group armies have been deployed, with preparations for potential battlefield operations under way since August 2022, the report
RSS