The Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) yesterday dismissed reports that the government is planning to replace the third liquified natural gas (LNG) terminal project in Taoyuan with an LNG terminal in Yunlin County’s Mailiao Township (麥寮).
The Chinese-language United Daily News yesterday cited “senior MOEA staff” as saying that President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) had asked Formosa Plastics Group (FPG, 台塑集團) chairman William Wong (王文淵) if the construction of an LNG terminal in Mailiao could be sped up.
The environmental group Air Clean Taiwan also held a press conference yesterday at the Legislative Yuan calling for the swift construction of an LNG terminal in Mailiao to “save the algal reefs and the health of all Taiwanese.”
Photo: Cheng Shu-ting, Taipei Times
Minister of Economic Affairs Wang Mei-hua (王美花) said that it is “impossible” for an LNG terminal in Mailiao to replace the proposed third LNG terminal off the coast of Datan Borough (大潭) in Taoyuan’s Guanyin District (觀音).
“Without an environmental impact assessment or agreement from local authorities, an LNG terminal at Mailiao is at least six years away,” Wang said.
“Mailiao is also 180km from the Datan Power Plant where the gas is needed. From previous experience, we know that those pipelines take a long time to build,” she said.
Photo: CNA
Wang said the ministry would “heartily approve” the construction of an LNG power plant and receiving terminal at Mailiao, not to replace the third LNG terminal, but to replace coal-fired plants, which release far more pollutants into the air.
“If we can build an LNG power plant in Mailiao and replace existing coal-fired plants, that would help greatly in our goal of reducing the use of coal and air pollution,” Wang said. “We will be happy to assist FPG in such a project.”
The planned third LNG terminal became controversial after environmental groups started a petition for a referendum blocking its construction in order to protect “algal reefs that are more than 7,500 years old” off Datan.
Taiwanese voters will go to the polls on Aug. 28 to decide the fate of the third LNG terminal. There are to be three other referendums on the ballot, including one calling for the mothballed Fourth Nuclear Power Plant to be activated.
According to the Referendum Act (公民投票法), 25 percent of registered voters must vote “yes” to a proposal, with the “yes” votes outnumbering the “no” votes for the proposal to pass.
On Ireland’s blustery western seaboard, researchers are gleefully flying giant kites — not for fun, but in the hope of generating renewable electricity and sparking a “revolution” in wind energy. “We use a kite to capture the wind and a generator at the bottom of it that captures the power,” said Padraic Doherty of Kitepower, the Dutch firm behind the venture. At its test site in operation since September 2023 near the small town of Bangor Erris, the team transports the vast 60-square-meter kite from a hangar across the lunar-like bogland to a generator. The kite is then attached by a
Foxconn Technology Co (鴻準精密), a metal casing supplier owned by Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), yesterday announced plans to invest US$1 billion in the US over the next decade as part of its business transformation strategy. The Apple Inc supplier said in a statement that its board approved the investment on Thursday, as part of a transformation strategy focused on precision mold development, smart manufacturing, robotics and advanced automation. The strategy would have a strong emphasis on artificial intelligence (AI), the company added. The company said it aims to build a flexible, intelligent production ecosystem to boost competitiveness and sustainability. Foxconn
Leading Taiwanese bicycle brands Giant Manufacturing Co (巨大機械) and Merida Industry Co (美利達工業) on Sunday said that they have adopted measures to mitigate the impact of the tariff policies of US President Donald Trump’s administration. The US announced at the beginning of this month that it would impose a 20 percent tariff on imported goods made in Taiwan, effective on Thursday last week. The tariff would be added to other pre-existing most-favored-nation duties and industry-specific trade remedy levy, which would bring the overall tariff on Taiwan-made bicycles to between 25.5 percent and 31 percent. However, Giant did not seem too perturbed by the
TARIFF CONCERNS: Semiconductor suppliers are tempering expectations for the traditionally strong third quarter, citing US tariff uncertainty and a stronger NT dollar Several Taiwanese semiconductor suppliers are taking a cautious view of the third quarter — typically a peak season for the industry — citing uncertainty over US tariffs and the stronger New Taiwan dollar. Smartphone chip designer MediaTek Inc (聯發科技) said that customers accelerated orders in the first half of the year to avoid potential tariffs threatened by US President Donald Trump’s administration. As a result, it anticipates weaker-than-usual peak-season demand in the third quarter. The US tariff plan, announced on April 2, initially proposed a 32 percent duty on Taiwanese goods. Its implementation was postponed by 90 days to July 9, then
RSS