A campaign to start a referendum against a liquefied natural gas (LNG) project near an algal reef off Taoyuan has been extended to Wednesday next week, after generating massive support over the past few days, campaigners said yesterday.
State-run utility CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC) is building an LNG terminal off the coast of Datan Borough (大潭) in the city’s Guanyin District (觀音), a project that was approved by the Environmental Protection Administration in 2018.
The Rescue Datan’s Algal Reefs Alliance is making a last-minute push to secure the needed 350,000 signatures so that the referendum to conserve the reef can proceed to the next stage of the process and reach a vote in August, it said.
Photo: CNA
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 campaign was originally to end yesterday so the alliance could start reviewing the submissions to meet the Central Election Committee’s March 17 deadline.
However, after collecting about 240,000 signatures, the alliance urged supporters to continue submitting signatures until Wednesday next week.
The campaign, which started last year, had been relatively low-key until recently, when an increasing number of celebrities and political figures spoke out in support of preserving the reef.
The alliance said it has been receiving new signatures at a rate of 30,000 to 60,000 per day over the past few days.
Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) said earlier this week that every effort has been made to avoid environmental damage caused by the LNG project, while securing the country’s energy supply.
“We want to stop the coal-burning generation of electricity as soon as possible to cut carbon emissions, so this is a choice we had to make,” Su said.
For instance, the government has already minimized the impact on the reef by reducing the construction area of the proposed LNG station by 90 percent, from the 232 hectares approved by the previous Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) administration, he said.
The government would also establish a fund to protect the reefs, he added.
“China is preparing to invade Taiwan,” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) said in an exclusive interview with British media channel Sky News for a special report titled, “Is Taiwan ready for a Chinese invasion?” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said today in a statement. The 25-minute-long special report by Helen Ann-Smith released yesterday saw Sky News travel to Penghu, Taoyuan and Taipei to discuss the possibility of a Chinese invasion and how Taiwan is preparing for an attack. The film observed emergency response drills, interviewed baseball fans at the Taipei Dome on their views of US President
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) today issued a "tsunami watch" alert after a magnitude 8.7 earthquake struck off the Kamchatka Peninsula in northeastern Russia earlier in the morning. The quake struck off the east coast of the Kamchatka Peninsula at 7:25am (Taiwan time) at a depth of about 19km, the CWA said, citing figures from the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center. The CWA's Seismological Center said preliminary assessments indicate that a tsunami could reach Taiwan's coastal areas by 1:18pm today. The CWA urged residents along the coast to stay alert and take necessary precautions as waves as high as 1m could hit the southeastern
ECONOMIC BENEFITS: The imports from Belize would replace those from Honduras, whose shrimp exports have dropped 67 percent since cutting ties in 2023 Maintaining ties with Taiwan has economic benefits, Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials said yesterday, citing the approval of frozen whiteleg shrimp imports from Belize by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as an example. The FDA on Wednesday approved the tariff-free imports from Belize after the whiteleg shrimp passed the Systematic Inspection of Imported Food, which would continue to boost mutual trade, the ministry said. Taiwan’s annual consumption of whiteleg shrimps stands at 30,000 tonnes, far exceeding domestic production, the ministry said. Taiwan used to fill the gap by importing shrimps from Honduras, but purchases slumped after Tegucigalpa severed diplomatic ties with Taiwan
The Executive Yuan yesterday approved a southwestern extension of the Sanying MRT Line from New Taipei to Bade District (八德) in Taoyuan, with a goal of starting construction by late 2026. The 4.03-kilometer extension, featuring three new stations, will run from the current terminus at Yingtao Fude Station (LB12) in New Taipei City to Dannan Station (LB14), where it will connect with Taoyuan’s Green Line, New Taipei City Metro Corp said in a statement. This extension will follow the completion of core Sanying Line, a 14.29-kilometer medium-capacity system linking Tucheng (土城), Sansia (三峽)
RSS