Environmentalists are urging the public to sign a petition to push for a referendum to protect algal reefs off the coast of Taoyuan.
State-run utility CPC Corp, Taiwan is building a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal off the coast of Datan Borough (大潭) in Taoyuan’s Guanyin District (觀音), a project that was approved by the Environmental Protection Administration in 2018.
Environmentalists have been opposed to the project, saying the coast is home to algal reefs with a nearly 7,500-year history, as well as other precious ecosystems.
Rescue Datan’s Algal Reefs Alliance convener Pan Chong-cheng (潘忠政) last year initiated a referendum proposal to protect the reefs.
The proposed referendum would ask: “Do you agree that CPC’s LNG terminal should be relocated from its planned site on the algal reef coast of Datan and its adjacent waters?”
The referendum proposal has entered its second stage and campaigners need to collect 350,000 signatures by Sunday, as they need to review the petitions before sending them to the Central Election Commission by the middle of next month, Pan said yesterday.
As of Monday, campaigners had collected more than 96,000 signatures, he said, thanking celebrities for helping to rally support for the issue.
It would be the first referendum about ecological protection in the nation’s history, Pan said, expressing the hope that it would prompt Taiwanese to think about if short-term economic gain outweighs environmental protection.
The Ministry of Economic Affairs, which oversees state-run utilities, has said that the project would not affect habitats on the algal reefs.
CPC on Monday posted images on Facebook that it said showed that the construction of the terminal would not affect the algal reefs.
Guantang Industrial Park and Port remains the optimal venue for building the terminal, whose completion would help satisfy the nation’s demand for electricity and help curb air pollution, it said.
New Power Party Chairwoman Chen Jiau-hua (陳椒華) yesterday rejected that claim, saying that some of the construction work has affected the algal reefs and that the party would continue to support the referendum proposal.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) is also helping to push for the referendum, saying that future generations should also be able to enjoy the algal reefs.
However, Democratic Progressive Party spokeswoman Chien Shu-pei (簡舒培) yesterday questioned the KMT’s motives for supporting the proposed referendum.
It was a KMT administration that approved the terminal project in 2015, but now the party is supporting a referendum to protect the algal reefs at the site, she said, accusing the KMT of using the referendum as an excuse to propose restarting work on the mothballed Fourth Nuclear Power Plant.
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