Miaoli County Councilor Han Mao-hsien (韓茂賢), an independent, on Tuesday drew ire after saying that the county should seek to skirt environmental assessments for development projects.
Han said that environmental regulations were “killing” projects, often over concerns regarding effects on the habitat of leopard cats.
“There are too many leopard cats. That is why they run onto the roads and get hit by cars,” he said.
Photo: Peng Chien-li, Taipei Times
Miaoli County Commissioner Hsu Yao-chang (徐耀昌) should “get away with what he could to build what he could, while avoiding whatever fines he could” to “let money flow into the county so that Miaoli could become rich,” he said.
The county government in March finalized autonomous regulations for the conservation of endangered leopard cats and forwarded them to the Miaoli County Council, which said at its 19th meeting on Tuesday that it hopes to pass them by the end of the year.
The legislation would be the first of its kind nationwide.
Han opposed the draft, saying that it is the result of undue pressure on the county government from conservationists.
The county has been spending NT$5 million (US$161,520) per year on tracking leopard cat populations, despite less-than-ideal finances, he said, adding that the money would be better spent buying new uniforms for firefighters or providing resources to animal shelters to care for stray cats and dogs.
Environmental regulations obstruct investment in the county, and waste time and resources, he said.
Helping the central government control and supervise local businesses and investors is unethical behavior by the county government, he said.
“There is no need to conform with the central government on this nonsense,” he said.
Rights advocate group Miaoli Guard said that Han’s advice to the commissioner to ignore regulations was regrettable.
He is comparable to Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), as he has “not done his homework,” the group said.
Han Mao-hsien’s argument that development proposals in the county “always die when they reach the environmental assessment stage” was inaccurate, it said, adding that a high percentage of its environmental assessments pass.
“The environment is being destroyed and the money stays in the hands of a small number of people, who take it out of the county. The people of Miaoli will be left to suffer,” it said.
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
Taiwan will now have four additional national holidays after the Legislative Yuan passed an amendment today, which also made Labor Day a national holiday for all sectors. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) used their majority in the Legislative Yuan to pass the amendment to the Act on Implementing Memorial Days and State Holidays (紀念日及節日實施辦法), which the parties jointly proposed, in its third and final reading today. The legislature passed the bill to amend the act, which is currently enforced administratively, raising it to the legal level. The new legislation recognizes Confucius’ birthday on Sept. 28, the
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
RSS