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.
Taiwan is to commence mass production of the Tien Kung (天弓, “Sky Bow”) III, IV and V missiles by the second quarter of this year if the legislature approves the government’s NT$1.25 trillion (US$39.78 billion) special defense budget, an official said yesterday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, a defense official with knowledge of the matter said that the advanced systems are expected to provide crucial capabilities against ballistic and cruise missiles for the proposed “T-Dome,” an advanced, multi-layered air defense network. The Tien Kung III is an air defense missile with a maximum interception altitude of 35km. The Tien Kung IV and V
The disruption of 941 flights in and out of Taiwan due to China’s large-scale military exercises was no accident, but rather the result of a “quasi-blockade” used to simulate creating the air and sea routes needed for an amphibious landing, a military expert said. The disruptions occurred on Tuesday and lasted about 10 hours as China conducted live-fire drills in the Taiwan Strait. The Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) said the exercises affected 857 international flights and 84 domestic flights, affecting more than 100,000 travelers. Su Tzu-yun (蘇紫雲), a research fellow at the government-sponsored Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said the air
Taiwan lacks effective and cost-efficient armaments to intercept rockets, making the planned “T-Dome” interception system necessary, two experts said on Tuesday. The concerns were raised after China’s military fired two waves of rockets during live-fire drills around Taiwan on Tuesday, part of two-day exercises code-named “Justice Mission 2025.” The first wave involved 17 rockets launched at 9am from Pingtan in China’s Fujian Province, according to Lieutenant General Hsieh Jih-sheng (謝日升) of the Office of the Deputy Chief of the General Staff for Intelligence at the Ministry of National Defense. Those rockets landed 70 nautical miles (129.6km) northeast of Keelung without flying over Taiwan,
A strong continental cold air mass is to bring pollutants to Taiwan from tomorrow, the Ministry of Environment said today, as it issued an “orange” air quality alert for most of the country. All of Taiwan except for Hualien and Taitung counties is to be under an “orange” air quality alert tomorrow, indicating air quality that is unhealthy for sensitive groups. In China, areas from Shandong to Shanghai have been enveloped in haze since Saturday, the ministry said in a news release. Yesterday, hourly concentrations of PM2.5 in these areas ranged from 65 to 160 micrograms per cubic meter (mg/m³), and pollutants were
RSS