Environmental groups yesterday staged a protest in Taichung against CPC Corp, Taiwan’s gas terminal expansion project, calling on the government not to pursue its policy to replace coal with gas at the expense of critically endangered white dolphins.
The project was proposed in line with the government’s energy transition policy to increase the nation’s gas-fired power proportion to 50 percent while reducing coal-fired power to 20 percent of power generation by 2030.
It requires more than 60 hectares of land reclamation added to the existing liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal at the Port of Taichung, with eight 180,000-kiloliter gas storage tanks to be constructed.
Photo: Chang Hsuan-tse, Taipei Times
Environmental advocates are worried the land reclamation could destroy white dolphin habitats near the port, arguing that Taiwan’s LNG capacity would soon surpass estimated demand and the expansion was unnecessary.
Government Watch Alliance executive director Hsu Hsin-hsin (許心欣) said the white dolphin population in Taiwan has declined to less than 50 and their living space is threatened by several proposed development projects at the port, including CPC Corp’s LNG terminal expansion project and Taiwan Power Co’s LNG terminal construction project.
Such projects should have collectively undergone an environmental impact assessment review to properly judge their combined impact on ecosystems at the port, but they were evaluated separately, she said.
Matsu’s Fish Conservation Union standing director Kuo Chia-wen (郭佳雯) said the area is not just a “corridor” that white dolphins pass through, but a critical habitat for this endemic subspecies of Taiwan to breed and rear their young.
A video released by filmmaker Chien Yu-chun (簡毓群) showed that 14 white dolphins were spotted on Feb. 6 in waters slated for land reclamation under the terminal expansion project.
Noises and vibration produced by land reclamation activities would seriously affect the survival of white dolphins, Kuo said.
Society of Wilderness member Chien Chien-wen (錢建文) said LNG facilities could soon become stranded assets, given that LNG is transitional energy and the ultimate goal is to achieve net zero by 2050.
The government should promote net-zero transition by reducing energy-intensive industries’ energy consumption instead of sacrificing marine ecosystems and fishery resources, he said, adding that the port’s terminal expansion project and other related projects should be suspended.
Changhua Environmental Protection Union researcher Lin Cheng-han (林政翰) cited the Ministry of Economic Affairs’ estimates as showing that demand for LNG storage would peak at 3.5 million kiloliters in 2035 and then decrease in accordance with the 2050 net-zero roadmap.
The three operating LNG terminals, their proposed expansion and the four new terminals proposed to be built would add up to 7.85 million kiloliters of LNG storage capacity, more than twice the estimated maximum demand, he said.
The military has spotted two Chinese warships operating in waters near Penghu County in the Taiwan Strait and sent its own naval and air forces to monitor the vessels, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. Beijing sends warships and warplanes into the waters and skies around Taiwan on an almost daily basis, drawing condemnation from Taipei. While the ministry offers daily updates on the locations of Chinese military aircraft, it only rarely gives details of where Chinese warships are operating, generally only when it detects aircraft carriers, as happened last week. A Chinese destroyer and a frigate entered waters to the southwest
The eastern extension of the Taipei MRT Red Line could begin operations as early as late June, the Taipei Department of Rapid Transit Systems said yesterday. Taipei Rapid Transit Corp said it is considering offering one month of free rides on the new section to mark its opening. Construction progress on the 1.4km extension, which is to run from the current terminal Xiangshan Station to a new eastern terminal, Guangci/Fengtian Temple Station, was 90.6 percent complete by the end of last month, the department said in a report to the Taipei City Council's Transportation Committee. While construction began in October 2016 with an
NON-RED SUPPLY: Boosting the nation’s drone industry is becoming increasingly urgent as China’s UAV dominance could become an issue in a crisis, an analyst said Taiwan’s drone exports to Europe grew 41.7-fold from 2024 to last year, with demand from Ukraine’s fight against Russian aggression the most likely driver of growth, a study showed. The Institute for Democracy, Society and Emerging Technology (DSET) in a statement on Wednesday said it found that many of Taiwan’s uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) sales were from Poland and the Czech Republic. These countries likely transferred the drones to Ukraine to aid it in its fight against the Russian invasion that started in 2022, it said. Despite the gains, Taiwan is not the dominant drone exporter to these markets, ranking second and fourth
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s comment last year on Tokyo’s potential reaction to a Taiwan-China conflict has forced Beijing to rewrite its invasion plans, a retired Japanese general said. Takaichi told the Diet on Nov. 7 last year that a Chinese naval blockade or military attack on Taiwan could constitute a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan, potentially allowing Tokyo to exercise its right to collective self-defense. Former Japan Ground Self-Defense Force general Kiyofumi Ogawa said in a recent speech that the remark has been interpreted as meaning Japan could intervene in the early stages of a Taiwan Strait conflict, undermining China’s previous assumptions
RSS