Tue, Jan 30, 2018 page3

• Taipower’s Shenao plant meets opposition

  EXPANSION: The EIA committee suggested that the EPA ask the state-run company to revise its report and then approve it, or ask it to apply for a new EIA procedure

  • By Lin Chia-nan / Staff reporter
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  State-run Taiwan Power Co’s (Taipower) plans to expand its coal-fired Shenao Power Plant (深澳電廠) in New Taipei City yesterday met with fervent opposition from environmental groups, as well as the Taipei and New Taipei City governments at an environmental impact assessment (EIA) committee meeting in Taipei.

  The utility plans to install two ultra-supercritical coal-fired generators with 600,000 kilowatts of capacity each at the Shenao plant, which stopped operations in 2007.

  While the project passed an EIA in 2006, Taipower is required to apply for an environmental impact difference review due to changes to the project, which underwent its third EIA committee review at the Environmental Protection Administration yesterday.

  

  Protesters from several environmental groups hold placards outside the Environmental Protection Administration’s offices in Taipei yesterday during a protest against a planned expansion of Taiwan Power Co’s coal-fired Shenao Power Plant in New Taipei City.

  Photo: CNA

  The expansion project is a new construction plan and would cause new pollution to the local area, environmental groups told a news conference before the meeting.

  “The project runs counter to the government’s policies to reduce coal use, carbon emissions and air pollution,” Greenpeace Taiwan campaigner Lisa Tsai (蔡佩芸) said, adding that coal-fired power should not be the nation’s option in its energy transformation.

  If ultra-supercritical power generators are less polluting, the company should have used such units at other plants in Taichung and Kaohsiung to reduce air pollution, instead of gas-fired generators, Green Citizens’ Action Alliance deputy secretary-general Hung Shen-han (洪申翰) said.

  “The New Taipei City Government has decided to stop issuing coal permits to new facilities, while the city’s small and medium-sized factories are required to stop using coal-fired facilities two years later,” New Taipei City Environmental Protection Department Deputy Director-General Wang Mei-wen (王美文) said.

  As the city already has the Linkou Power Plant, Taipower should propose an alternative project to promote cleaner energy, instead of another coal-fired power plant, she said.

  The Taipei Environmental Protection Bureau also objected to the project, saying it would lead to a surge of pollutants, such as fine particulate matter, nitrogen oxides and sulfur oxides in the city, Air Quality and Noise Control Division chief Yang Mei-hua (楊梅華) said.

  The reaction among local residents to the project was divided.

  Taipower had invited some local residents to visit its Linkou plant, and they have realized its new coal-fired facilities are not as polluting as they imagined, Rueifang District (瑞芳) Shenao Borough Warden Tseng Su-chen (曾素貞) said, urging the company to fulfill its promise of helping the local fishing economy.

  The district’s Longtan Borough (龍潭里) Warden Lin Chih-hui (林志輝) agreed, saying that Taipower should start installing the generators as soon as possible; otherwise, the nation would have a power shortage.

  It is odd that Taipower’s report shows that it has garnered support from most residents, given that most residents were opposed to it in 2016, said Shenao resident Yi Juo-lan (衣若蘭), an associate professor at National Taiwan University’s Department of History.

  Yi called on the company to publicize its poll survey method, as well as more pollution and health risk evaluations.

  After a heated debate among its members, the committee concluded with two suggestions: The EPA can ask Taipower to revise its report and then approve the project, or it can ask the utility to apply for a new EIA procedure.
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