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.
STAY AWAY: An official said people should avoid disturbing snakes, as most do not actively attack humans, but would react defensively if threatened Taitung County authorities yesterday urged the public to stay vigilant and avoid disturbing snakes in the wild, following five reported snakebite cases in the county so far this year. Taitung County Fire Department secretary Lin Chien-cheng (林建誠) said two of the cases were in Donghe Township (東河) and involved the Taiwan habus, one person was bit by a Chinese pit viper near the South Link Railway and the remaining two were caused by unidentified snakes. He advised residents near fields to be cautious of snakes hiding in shady indoor areas, especially when entering or leaving their homes at night. In case of a
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck off the coast of Hualien County in eastern Taiwan at 7pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter of the temblor was at sea, about 69.9km south of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 30.9km, it said. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake’s intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County’s Changbin Township (長濱), where it measured 5 on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 4 in Hualien, Nantou, Chiayi, Yunlin, Changhua and Miaoli counties, as well as
Credit departments of farmers’ and fishers’ associations blocked a total of more than NT$180 million (US$6.01 million) from being lost to scams last year, National Police Agency (NPA) data showed. The Agricultural Finance Agency (AFA) said last week that staff of farmers’ and fishers’ associations’ credit departments are required to implement fraud prevention measures when they serve clients at the counter. They would ask clients about personal financial management activities whenever they suspect there might be a fraud situation, and would immediately report the incident to local authorities, which would send police officers to the site to help, it said. NPA data showed
ENERGY RESILIENCE: Although Alaska is open for investments, Taiwan is sourcing its gas from the Middle East, and the sea routes carry risks, Ho Cheng-hui said US government officials’ high-profile reception of a Taiwanese representative at the Alaska Sustainable Energy Conference indicated the emergence of an Indo-Pacific energy resilience alliance, an academic said. Presidential Office Secretary-General Pan Men-an (潘孟安) attended the conference in Alaska on Thursday last week at the invitation of the US government. Pan visited oil and gas facilities with senior US officials, including US Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, US Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy and US Senator Daniel Sullivan. Pan attending the conference on behalf of President William Lai (賴清德) shows a significant elevation in diplomatic representation,