Premier William Lai (賴清德) has promised to send a draft amendment to the Environmental Impact Assessment Act (環境影響評估法) to the Legislative Yuan within six months, Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) Deputy Minister Chan Shun-kuei (詹順貴) told reporters yesterday.
Following the EPA’s approval on Wednesday last week of Taiwan Power Co’s (Taipower) plan to rebuild the Shenao Power Plant (深澳) in New Taipei City’s Rueifang District (瑞芳), Chan has come under fire for casting the deciding vote after the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) grand assembly members were tied.
Chan on Monday told a meeting of the legislature’s Health, Environment and Labor Committee that he could not legally reject the project, because it had passed an EIA in 2006 and its modified version would reduce its potential pollution.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers on the committee on Monday called for him to resign over the vote.
“People should turn their fury into calls for promoting an amendment to the Environmental Impact Assessment Act,” Chan said, adding that the EPA had introduced a draft amendment to the act in September last year, but is still refining some details.
Under the draft, an EIA approval would be invalidated if a project’s developer does not begin construction within 10 years of it passing an EIA review.
The EPA would be empowered to rescind its EIA approval if it determines that an old project would have tremendous effects on the environment, the draft says.
However, KMT Legislator Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) said it is clear that Lai does not want the act amended, given the objections from the Ministry of Economic Affairs, other government agencies and industry interests.
Chiang on Monday submitted a motion demanding the EPA send the draft for legislative review within three months, but it was rejected by Democratic Progressive Party lawmakers on the committee, who hold the majority.
During a legislative session yesterday, Lai promised that the Executive Yuan would submit a draft amendment to the legislature within six months, but Chan said the draft might be changed to favor the corporate sector.
During a radio interview yesterday, Chan said whether he would stay in office depends on whether he can get his ideas for improving the EIA mechanism implemented.
The Bureau of Energy and Taipower should provide Lai with complete and accurate information on the Shenao project, since Lai came under fire last week for saying that the plant would use “clean coal,” Chan said.
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