Environmental groups yesterday filed an appeal with the Executive Yuan, seeking to revoke the environmental impact assessment (EIA) conditionally approved in February for the Hsieh-ho Power Plant’s planned fourth liquefied natural gas (LNG) receiving station off the coast of Keelung.
The appeal was filed jointly by the Protect Waimushan Seashore Action Group, the Wild at Heart Legal Defense Association and the Keelung City Taiwan Head Cultural Association, which together held a news conference outside the Executive Yuan in Taipei.
Explaining the reasons for the appeal, Wang Hsing-chih (王醒之) of the Protect Waimushan Seashore Action Group said that the EIA failed to address issues including soil pollution, environmental damage and national defense concerns.
Photo: Hsieh Chun-lin, Taipei Times
Wang added that the project site borders the Weihai Naval Base and claimed that Chinese military drills have used LNG receiving stations as simulated targets.
He said the EIA review process did not include any discussion of the national security issues.
Wild at Heart Legal Defense Association executive director Chen Hsien-cheng (陳憲政) said there were clear procedural flaws in the approval process, including the failure to release the sixth draft of the EIA report seven days ahead of the review meeting as required.
Chen also said that the assessment lacked substantive discussion of soil pollution and that the coral identification data contained numerous errors.
Tsai Ya-ying (蔡雅瀅), a lawyer with the association, said that a landfill location was approved without obtaining written consent from the Keelung City Government and without holding a new scope-defining meeting.
Tsai accused Taiwan Power Co (Taipower), the state-run utility responsible for the project, of releasing a misleading advertisement that claimed the terminal would emit no sulfur oxide.
The Hsieh-ho Power Plant currently has two oil-fired units each capable of producing 500 megawatts that began operating in 1980 and 1985, according to Taipower’s Web site.
The fourth LNG receiving station at the power plant had been under second-phase review since 2018 and underwent six preliminary review meetings before February’s decision to conditionally approve the project.
The EIA committee only gave conditional approval with the requirement that Taipower address soil contamination concerns.
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck off the coast of Yilan County at 8:39pm tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The epicenter was 38.7km east-northeast of Yilan County Hall at a focal depth of 98.3km, the CWA’s Seismological Center said. The quake’s maximum intensity, which gauges the actual physical effect of a seismic event, was a level 4 on Taiwan’s 7-tier intensity scale, the center said. That intensity level was recorded in Yilan County’s Nanao Township (南澳), Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township (關西), Nantou County’s Hehuanshan (合歡山) and Hualien County’s Yanliao (鹽寮). An intensity of 3 was
Instead of focusing solely on the threat of a full-scale military invasion, the US and its allies must prepare for a potential Chinese “quarantine” of Taiwan enforced through customs inspections, Stanford University Hoover fellow Eyck Freymann said in a Foreign Affairs article published on Wednesday. China could use various “gray zone” tactics in “reconfiguring the regional and ultimately the global economic order without a war,” said Freymann, who is also a nonresident research fellow at the US Naval War College. China might seize control of Taiwan’s links to the outside world by requiring all flights and ships entering or leaving Taiwan
The first of 10 new high-capacity trains purchased from South Korea’s Hyundai Rotem arrived at the Port of Taipei yesterday to meet the demands of an expanding metro network, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. The train completed a three-day, 1,200km voyage from the Port of Masan in South Korea, the company said. Costing NT$590 million (US$18.79 million) each, the new six-carriage trains feature a redesigned interior based on "human-centric" transportation concepts, TRTC said. The design utilizes continuous longitudinal seating to widen the aisles and optimize passenger flow, while also upgrading passenger information displays and driving control systems for a more comfortable
Taiwan's first indigenous defense submarine, the SS-711 Hai Kun (海鯤, or Narwhal), departed for its 13th sea trial at 7am today, marking its seventh submerged test, with delivery to the navy scheduled for July. The outing also marked its first sea deployment since President William Lai (賴清德) boarded the submarine for an inspection on March 19, drawing a crowd of military enthusiasts who gathered to show support. The submarine this morning departed port accompanied by CSBC Corp’s Endeavor Manta (奮進魔鬼魚號) uncrewed surface vessel and a navy M109 assault boat. Amid public interest in key milestones such as torpedo-launching operations and overnight submerged trials,
RSS