The Taichung City Government again fined the Taichung Power Plant NT$6 million (US$197,909) after it failed to stop using raw coal for power generation, the city said yesterday, but the plant’s owner disputes the rules.
The nation’s largest coal-fired plant was fined NT$3 million by the city on Nov. 3 for exceeding the maximum coal use of 11.04 million tonnes permitted for the year with a warning that it must “make improvements” within 10 days or face additional fines, the city said.
As of Nov. 30, the plant had used 11.13 million tonnes of coal and is continuing to do so, despite warnings, it said, adding that the plant, operated by state-run Taiwan Power Co (Taipower), has until Dec. 23 to make improvements or face further punishments.
Taipower yesterday said the fine was unreasonable and unlawful, adding that it would seek administrative relief if the city continues to impose fines.
The company said it did not exceed the legal limit, as a permit issued by the city in 2017 allowed the plant to burn up to 16 million tonnes of coal a year.
That permit, issued by then-Taichung mayor Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) of the Democratic Progressive Party, limited the plant’s coal consumption for this year to 13 million tonnes.
However, after the election last year of Taichung Mayor Lu Shiow-yen (盧秀燕) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), a new annual limit of 11.04 million tonnes was set to quell a public outcry that claimed the plant was the main source of air pollution in the city.
The new limit was decided by the city government on Sept. 20 this year, and a notice of the change sent to the power plant one month later.
Taipower said in a statement that the city government had given it insufficient time to make the necessary adjustments to operations.
The company said it is doing everything possible to meet the expectations of local residents by helping improve the city’s air quality through the reduction of coal burning, but the maintenance of a stable electricity supply is also an important consideration.
In October, Taipower said that it was considering appealing NT$60 million in fines from the city for discharging wastewater with high levels of boron.
Former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) mention of Taiwan’s official name during a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on Wednesday was likely a deliberate political play, academics said. “As I see it, it was intentional,” National Chengchi University Graduate Institute of East Asian Studies professor Wang Hsin-hsien (王信賢) said of Ma’s initial use of the “Republic of China” (ROC) to refer to the wider concept of “the Chinese nation.” Ma quickly corrected himself, and his office later described his use of the two similar-sounding yet politically distinct terms as “purely a gaffe.” Given Ma was reading from a script, the supposed slipup
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
The bodies of two individuals were recovered and three additional bodies were discovered on the Shakadang Trail (砂卡礑) in Taroko National Park, eight days after the devastating earthquake in Hualien County, search-and-rescue personnel said. The rescuers reported that they retrieved the bodies of a man and a girl, suspected to be the father and daughter from the Yu (游) family, 500m from the entrance of the trail on Wednesday. The rescue team added that despite the discovery of the two bodies on Friday last week, they had been unable to retrieve them until Wednesday due to the heavy equipment needed to lift