The Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) yesterday ordered the Changhua County Government to retract its decision to revoke an operating license for Formosa Chemicals & Fibre Corp’s (FCFC, 台灣化學纖維) Changhua plant, saying the county should find other laws to back its decision.
The company’s Changhua plant in October last year filed an application to continue operations of three boiler units, but was turned down by the county government on the grounds that the application had exceeded application dates. The company filed a petition with the EPA, which was debated yesterday by the administration’s appeals committee.
EPA Deputy Minister Thomas Chan (詹順貴) said the committee concluded that the administration must order the county to cancel its revocation, while rejecting the company’s appeal for the EPA to recognize the license’s validity.
Photo: Chang Hui-wen, Taipei Times
EPA officials said the plant may resume operations, as the decision to revoke the county’s ruling meant that the plant was still in the process of applying for an extension, which means the existing license is still valid.
Formosa Chemicals said it has no plans to reopen the 51-year-old plant, despite the license’s validity, and would seek compensation from the county for financial losses.
“We still need to discuss more details with lawyers to make sure that Formosa Chemicals will not breach laws,” company vice chairman Hong Fu-yuan (洪福源) told a press conference in Taipei. “The actual losses at the plant are still being assessed, but the figure will be astronomical, considering maintenance and labor costs.”
The shutdown from October last year through January caused losses of nearly NT$3.2 billion (US$103.1 million), the company said at an earnings conference last month.
Asked about the issue of compliance with emission standards, Hong said that the company would meet the county’s requirements if the renewal is approved.
The county government last year attributed the rejection to the company’s failure to adhere to a coal standard it had promised to meet, saying at the time that the company should apply for a new permit instead of a renewal.
A company official, who declined to be named, said the company will not take any substantial steps ahead of the county’s decision on the renewal of its existing permits.
“The county government should decide to accept or reject our permit renewal applications in two months after the EPA’s decision,” he said.
The legal battle might be prolonged if the county government were to insist on rejecting the renewal, the official said.
Formosa Chemicals is the nation’s largest aromatic hydrocarbon supplier, with an annual capacity of more than 1.3 million tonnes of polystyrene.
Japan has deployed long-range missiles in a southwestern region near China, the Japanese defense minister said yesterday, at a time when ties with Beijing are at their lowest in recent years. The missiles were installed in Kumamoto in the southern region of Kyushu, as Japan is attempting to shore up its military capacity as China steps up naval activity in the East China Sea. “Standoff defense capabilities enable us to counter the threat of enemy forces attempting to invade our country ... while ensuring the safety of our personnel,” Japanese Minister of Defense Shinjiro Koizumi said. “This is an extremely important initiative for
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) today accepted an invitation from Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to lead a delegation to China next month, saying she hopes to promote the peaceful development of cross-strait relations and bring stability to the Taiwan Strait. “I am grateful and happy to accept this invitation,” Cheng said in a statement from the KMT chairperson’s office. Cheng said she hopes both sides can work together to promote the peaceful development of cross-strait relations, enhance exchange and cooperation, bring stability to the Taiwan Strait and improve people’s livelihoods. At today's news conference, Cheng said any efforts to
MORE POPULAR: Taiwan Pass sales increased by 59 percent during the first quarter compared with the same period last year, the Tourism Administration said The Tourism Administration yesterday said that it has streamlined the Taiwan Pass, with two versions available for purchase beginning today. The tourism agency has made the pass available to international tourists since 2024, allowing them to access the high-speed rail, Taiwan Railway Corp services, four MRT systems and four Taiwan Tourist Shuttles. Previously, five types of Taiwan Pass were available, but some tourists have said that the offerings were too complicated. The agency said only two types of Taiwan Pass would be available, starting from a three-day pass with the high-speed rail and a three-day pass with Taiwan Railway Corp. The former costs NT$2,800
The nation’s fastest supercomputer, Nano 4 (晶創26), is scheduled to be launched in the third quarter, and would be used to train large language models in finance and national defense sectors, the National Center for High-Performance Computing (NCHC) said. The supercomputer, which would operate at about 86.05 petaflops, is being tested at a new cloud computing center in the Southern Taiwan Science Park in Tainan. The exterior of the server cabinet features chip circuitry patterns overlaid with a map of Taiwan, highlighting the nation’s central position in the semiconductor industry. The center also houses Taiwania 2, Taiwania 3, Forerunner 1 and
RSS