The Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) defended Environmental Review Committee (ERC) members yesterday amid allegations they had colluded with construction companies to approve proposals.
During an interpellation session in the legislature last Friday, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Fu Kun-chi (傅焜萁) suggested that six out of the 11 ERC members responsible for reviewing the construction proposal for the Heping coal-burning power plant in Hualien County had taken cash to approve the project. Fu noted that the six also served on the review committee for the Suhua Freeway proposal.
"Considering the speed at which the Heping case was passed, compared with the hold-up for the Suhua Freeway case, one could suspect that the committee members had received kickbacks from developers," local media reports quoted him as saying.
"If [Fu] is trying to say that money had changed hands under the table for the Heping case, we can immediately request a legal investigation," Premier Chang Chun-hsiung (張俊雄) was quoted as telling Fu in response.
Minister of the Environmental Protection Administration Winston Dang (陳重信) condemned Fu at a press conference yesterday for "a poor demonstration of the power of public influence."
"The allegations legislator Fu made about committee members is an insult to their integrity. The members are all professionals and academics in the field of environmental impact review and they follow legal regulations in the review process," Dang said.
"While we respect all the speculation legislators may make ... after an ERC committee is selected, the members should have the liberty to review construction cases independently, even if their decisions upset the supporters or opponents of the Suhua case," he said.
Dang's comments same on the same day the Taiwan Area National Expressway Engineering Bureau, in accordance with the Suhua ERC's request, filed additional information on the construction proposal.
The committee must meet within one week of receipt of that information, and if the members consider the submission sufficient, a final decision may finally be made in the 11-year-old case.
Asked by reporters whether the Suhua ERC would continue reviewing the case, or postpone it because of the possible investigations of its members, Dang said that he respected the committee members and would leave the decision up to them.
Should the review process move ahead as scheduled, the committee could reach a decision at a meeting on Monday. If that happens, the Suhua case would see its final verdict from the EPA as soon as next month, Dang said.
ANOTHER EMERGES: The CWA yesterday said this year’s fourth storm of the typhoon season had formed in the South China Sea, but was not expected to affect Taiwan Tropical Storm Gaemi has intensified slightly as it heads toward Taiwan, where it is expected to affect the country in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 8am yesterday, the 120km-radius storm was 800km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, moving at 9kph northwest, the agency said. A sea warning for Gaemi could be issued tonight at the earliest, it said, adding that the storm is projected to be closest to Taiwan on Wednesday or Thursday. Gaemi’s potential effect on Taiwan remains unclear, as that would depend on its direction, radius and intensity, forecasters said. Former Weather Forecast
As COVID-19 cases in Japan have been increasing for 10 consecutive weeks, people should get vaccinated before visiting the nation, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said. The centers reported 773 hospitalizations and 124 deaths related to COVID-19 in Taiwan last week. CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Director Guo Hung-wei (郭宏偉) on Tuesday said the number of weekly COVID-19 cases reported in Japan has been increasing since mid-May and surpassed 55,000 cases from July 8 to July 14. The average number of COVID-19 patients at Japan’s healthcare facilities that week was also 1.39 times that of the week before and KP.3 is the dominant
The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) working group for Taiwan-related policies is likely to be upgraded to a committee-level body, a report commissioned by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said. As Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is increasingly likely to upgrade the CCP’s Central Leading Group for Taiwan Affairs, Taiwanese authorities should prepare by researching Xi and the CCP, the report said. At the third plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the CCP, which ended on Thursday last week, the party set a target of 2029 for the completion of some tasks, meaning that Xi is likely preparing to
US-CHINA TRADE DISPUTE: Despite Beijing’s offer of preferential treatment, the lure of China has dimmed as Taiwanese and international investors move out Japan and the US have become the favored destinations for Taiwanese graduates as China’s attraction has waned over the years, the Ministry of Labor said. According to the ministry’s latest income and employment advisory published this month, 3,215 Taiwanese university graduates from the class of 2020 went to Japan, surpassing for the first time the 2,881 graduates who went to China. A total of 2,300 graduates from the class of 2021 went to the US, compared with the 2,262 who went to China, the document showed. The trend continued for the class of 2023, of whom 1,460 went to Japan, 1,334 went to