An Environmental Protection Administration committee requested additional information yesterday from Formosa Plastics Group (台塑集團) before it could rule on expansion plans for an Yunlin County plant.
Expansion plans for the Sixth Naphtha Cracker in Mailiao Township (麥寮) underwent a fourth review yesterday.
The committee in charge of the environmental impact assessment for the plans said that a long list of supplementary information must be submitted before the panel could rule on the expansion.
After the committee announced its preliminary verdict, the company’s representatives declined to talk to reporters, saying only that they “wouldn’t know the answers to any of the questions” and immediately left the meeting.
The case under review was the fourth phase of the plant’s expansion. The plans have been stalled because of concerns over the massive volume of water the facility would consume. Three plants would be added at the location, which would increase water consumption by 1,644 tonnes per day.
The company said processed waste water and recycled cooling water from the plant could cover the additional water needs. Although more water would be needed per day, the company said 600 tonnes less waste water would be produced per day.
The committee, however, questioned the feasibility of the plan.
One of the committee members — all of whom are anonymous to ensure that they can review the case independently — said that “without an itemized balance sheet, the conservation would just be on paper. There is no way for the environmental impact assessment committee to inspect how the waste water is actually used.”
Furthermore, some of the water that would be recycled for the new facilities would come from one of the existing plants, which calls the water conservation plan into question, the same member said.
Another committee member said the expansion would add 344,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions per year.
“Although it is inevitable that, as time passes, a plant as large as the Sixth Naphtha Cracker will need to expand ... it is important to protect the environment as these changes are made and the environmental impact assessment committee’s responsibility is to ensure this protection,” the panel member said.
Taiwan is to receive the first batch of Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 jets from the US late this month, a defense official said yesterday, after a year-long delay due to a logjam in US arms deliveries. Completing the NT$247.2 billion (US$7.69 billion) arms deal for 66 jets would make Taiwan the third nation in the world to receive factory-fresh advanced fighter jets of the same make and model, following Bahrain and Slovakia, the official said on condition of anonymity. F-16 Block 70/72 are newly manufactured F-16 jets built by Lockheed Martin to the standards of the F-16V upgrade package. Republic of China
Taiwan-Japan Travel Passes are available for use on public transit networks in the two countries, Taoyuan Metro Corp said yesterday, adding that discounts of up to 7 percent are available. Taoyuan Metro, the Taipei MRT and Japan’s Keisei Electric Railway teamed up to develop the pass. Taoyuan Metro operates the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport MRT Line, while Keisei Electric Railway offers express services between Tokyo’s Narita Airport, and the Keisei Ueno and Nippori stations in the Japanese capital, as well as between Narita and Haneda airports. The basic package comprises one one-way ticket on the Taoyuan MRT Line and one Skyliner ticket on
A pro-Russia hacker group has launched a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack on the Taiwanese government in retaliation for President William Lai’s (賴清德) comments suggesting that China should have a territorial dispute with Russia, an information security company said today. The hacker group, NoName057, recently launched an HTTPs flood attack called “DDoSia” targeting Taiwanese government and financial units, Radware told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). Local tax bureaus in New Taipei City, Keelung, Hsinchu and Taoyuan were mentioned by the hackers. Only the Hsinchu Local Tax Bureau site appeared to be down earlier in the day, but was back
PROXIMITY: Prague is closer to Dresden than Berlin is, so Taiwanese firms are expected to take advantage of the Czech capital’s location, the Executive Yuan official said Taiwan plans to boost cooperation with the Czech Republic in semiconductor development due to Prague’s pivotal role in the European IC industry, Executive Yuan Secretary-General Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) said. With Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) building a wafer fab in the German city of Dresden, a Germany-Czech Republic-Poland “silicon triangle” is forming, Kung said in a media interview on the weekend after returning from a visit to Prague. “Prague is closer to Dresden than Berlin is, so Taiwanese firms are expected to take advantage of the Czech capital’s location,” he said. “Taiwan and Prague have already launched direct flights and it is
RSS