Air quality in the nation’s west could be poor over the next few days, while pollution from overseas might worsen air quality from tomorrow, the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) said yesterday, calling on people to limit burning of joss paper and incense during the nine-day Lunar New Year holiday, which began yesterday.
As of 4pm yesterday, the agency’s air quality index was “orange” (unhealthy for sensitive groups) for central regions and “red” (unhealthy for all groups) for several southern cities, where weak easterly winds were limiting the dispersion of fine particulate matter, the agency said.
A small amount of air pollution from across the Taiwan Strait might worsen local air quality from tomorrow to Tuesday, when a cold front is expected to arrive, bringing stronger northeasterly winds, it said, but added that the effects of overseas pollution would depend on the amount of rainfall.
Photo: Huang Chih-yuan, Taipei Times
On Wednesday and Thursday, northeasterly winds are expected to subside, once again preventing dispersion of pollutants in central and southern areas, it said.
In related news, the Kaohsiung Environmental Protection Bureau on Friday extended coal-burning permits for two of four coal-fired generators at the Singda Power Plant until next year, but ordered it to cut coal use, adding two conditions to the permits.
From October to March, the two generators are only allowed to use half as much coal as they were in 2016, when they consumed about 3.2 million tonnes, the bureau said.
From December to February, when air pollution is usually at its worst, the plant must stop one of the two generators to curtail pollution, it said.
The requirements would not destabilize power supply during peak times in summer, the bureau said.
Twenty-four Republican members of the US House of Representatives yesterday introduced a concurrent resolution calling on the US government to abolish the “one China” policy and restore formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan. Led by US representatives Tom Tiffany and Scott Perry, the resolution calls for not only re-establishing formal relations, but also urges the US Trade Representative to negotiate a free-trade agreement (FTA) with Taiwan and for US officials to advocate for Taiwan’s full membership in the UN and other international organizations. In a news release announcing the resolution, Tiffany, who represents a Wisconsin district, called the “one China” policy “outdated, counterproductive
Actress Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛) has “returned home” to Taiwan, and there are no plans to hold a funeral for the TV star who died in Japan from influenza- induced pneumonia, her family said in a statement Wednesday night. The statement was released after local media outlets reported that Barbie Hsu’s ashes were brought back Taiwan on board a private jet, which arrived at Taipei Songshan Airport around 3 p.m. on Wednesday. To the reporters waiting at the airport, the statement issued by the family read “(we) appreciate friends working in the media for waiting in the cold weather.” “She has safely returned home.
A Vietnamese migrant worker on Thursday won the NT$12 million (US$383,590) jackpot on a scratch-off lottery ticket she bought from a lottery shop in Changhua County’s Puyan Township (埔鹽), Taiwan Lottery Co said yesterday. The lottery winner, who is in her 30s and married, said she would continue to work in Taiwan and send her winnings to her family in Vietnam to improve their life. More Taiwanese and migrant workers have flocked to the lottery shop on Sec 2 of Jhangshuei Road (彰水路) to share in the luck. The shop owner, surnamed Chen (陳), said that his shop has been open for just
MUST REMAIN FREE: A Chinese takeover of Taiwan would lead to a global conflict, and if the nation blows up, the world’s factories would fall in a week, a minister said Taiwan is like Prague in 1938 facing Adolf Hitler; only if Taiwan remains free and democratic would the world be safe, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) said in an interview with Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. The ministry on Saturday said Corriere della Sera is one of Italy’s oldest and most read newspapers, frequently covers European economic and political issues, and that Wu agreed to an interview with the paper’s senior political analyst Massimo Franco in Taipei on Jan. 3. The interview was published on Jan. 26 with the title “Taiwan like Prague in 1938 with Hitler,” the ministry