Fine tuning the environmental impact assessment (EIA) process and granting more power to subcommittees are the first things incoming Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) minister Steven Shen (沈世宏) plans to do after taking the post today.
Speaking at a lunch with the press, Shen said he planned to include the work of the developers as well as environmental groups in EIA case subcommittees.
There needs to be a clearer division of labor between the EIA committee and case subcommittees, he said.
CONSTRUCTION
While subcommittees would judge the individual impact and consequences of construction proposals, the committee would decide whether to go ahead with construction projects based on the subcommittee’s impact analysis, he said.
Another priority of the EPA was to draft, within the next six months, the 12 policies incoming president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) environmental policy white paper, including the greenhouse gas reduction law and an energy tax law, Shen said.
In response to the media’s questions on whether the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would reopen the Suhua Freeway case, Shen said the proposal was currently in the hands of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications.
“The controversy is not on the freeway per se, but on the direction for development in the east ... however this would be a decision made at the Cabinet level,” he said.
FAREWELL
The arrival of new public servants means the former ones must go and a farewell party was held yesterday for the outgoing EPA Minister Winston Dang (陳重信).
Dang said the handover signified a rotation of power between parties, which was a natural and healthy thing for Taiwan’s democracy.
Quoting Winston Churchill who lost the post-war election after the Allies won World War II in 1945, Dang said: “I leave when the pub closes.”
At the farewell event, Dang listed positive environmental diplomatic work, significant river cleanups, and the stalling of major developmental projects such as the Suhua Freeway and Kuokuang Petrochemical Technology Co’s (國光石化科技) proposed chemical plant as the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) environmental protection achievements.
“Construction developers should take into account the cost of [a long] EIA process ... though the EPA is not bestowed much power, we are professional and insistent on our values as well as the direction that our national development should follow,” he said.
Also, Taiwan’s recycling rate is possibly now the best in the world, he said.
POLAM KOPITIAM CASE: Of the two people still in hospital, one has undergone a liver transplant and is improving, while the other is being evaluated for a liver transplant A fourth person has died from bongkrek acid poisoning linked to the Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said yesterday, as two other people remain seriously ill in hospital. The first death was reported on March 24. The man had been 39 years old and had eaten at the restaurant on March 22. As more cases of suspected food poisoning involving people who had eaten at the restaurant were reported by hospitals on March 26, the ministry and the Taipei Department of Health launched an investigation. The Food and
CHANGES: After-school tutoring periods, extracurricular activities during vacations or after-school study periods must not be used to teach new material, the ministry said The Ministry of Education yesterday announced new rules that would ban giving tests to most elementary and junior-high school students during morning study and afternoon rest periods. The amendments to regulations governing public education at elementary schools and junior high schools are to be implemented on Aug. 1. The revised rules stipulate that schools are forbidden to use after-school tutoring periods, extracurricular activities during summer or winter vacation or after-school study periods to teach new course material. In addition, schools would be prohibited from giving tests or exams to students in grades one to eight during morning study and afternoon break periods, the
Advocates of the rights of motorcycle and scooter riders yesterday protested in front of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications in Taipei, making three demands. They were joined by 30 passenger vehicles, which surrounded the ministry to make three demands related to traffic regulations — that motorcycles and scooters above 250cc be allowed on highways, that all motorcycles and scooters be allowed on inside lanes, and that driver and rider training programs be reformed. The ministry said that it has no plans to allow motorcycles on national highways for the time being, and said that motorcycles would be allowed on the inner
AMENDMENT: Contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau must be reported, and failure to comply could result in a prison sentence, the proposal stated The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) yesterday voted against a proposed bill by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers that would require elected officials to seek approval before visiting China. DPP Legislator Puma Shen’s (沈伯洋) proposed amendments to the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), stipulate that contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau should be reported, while failure to comply would be punishable by prison sentences of up to three years, alongside a fine of NT$10 million (US$309,041). Fifty-six voted with the TPP in opposition