Thousands of people yesterday marched in Kaohsiung against air pollution, calling on the city government to regulate coal burning and scrap a planned petrochemical plant near an elementary school.
The march started at Kaohsiung MRT Central Park Station at 1pm, from where protesters made their way to Kaohsiung City Hall.
It was the second of three marches against air pollution planned for this month and drew nearly 5,000 people, event organizer Southern Taiwan Anti-Air Pollution Alliance convener Chen Jiau-hua (陳椒華) said.
Photo: Wang Jung-hsiang, Taipei Times
The alliance has five demands: that the city government limit local plants’ coal use; a trade mechanism between stationary and mobile pollution sources stipulated in the Air Pollution Control Act (空氣污染防制法) be abolished; China Steel Corp (中鋼, CSC) transform its coke wet quenching tower into a dry one; Taiwan Power Co (台電) convert coal-fired units at the city’s Sinda (興達) and Dalin (大林) power plants to gas-fired ones; and that Taiwan-Japan Oxo Chemical Industries Inc (曄揚) scrap a plan to build petrochemical plant 200m from an elementary school, it said.
Kaohsiung mayoral candidates Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) of the Democratic Progressive Party and Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) also joined the march.
Proposing several plans to alleviate air pollution, Chen said that if elected, he would re-evaluate the allowable and actual emission levels for local factories, use artificial intelligence to predict and control air quality, establish an air quality regulation committee and transform the heavily polluted Kaohsiung into a green and livable city.
Photo: CNA
Han, along with KMT Tainan mayoral candidate Kao Su-po (高思博), pasted stickers bearing angry facial expressions onto Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) Minister Lee Ying-yuan’s (李應元) image in front of city hall.
The EPA and the Kaohsiung Bureau of Environmental Protection both issued statements responding to the appeals.
The Sinda plant’s four coal-fired units would be decommissioned by 2023 and 2024 at the earliest, and it would be equipped with three gas-fired units that would become operational from 2023, the EPA said, adding that the Dalin plant is planing to install ultra-supercritical coal-fired units to reduce pollution.
CSC is planning to build a dry coke quenching tower as the alliance has suggested, the EPA said.
The agency did not accept the protesters’ request to abolish the pollution trade mechanism, but said it has imposed regulations to regulate the trade and a 10-year sunset clause.
Establishing new regulations for coal use is not feasible, considering that the Yunlin County Government’s regulations were not approved by the Executive Yuan and those of the Taichung City Government do not stipulate any penalties for violators, the bureau said.
Instead, it has restricted power plants’ coal use by reducing the maximum amount of coal use in their permits, the bureau said.
Since the Kaohsiung City Government’s Regulation Standards for Air Pollutants Emitted by Burning Facilities (燃燒設備空氣污染物排放標準) took effect in July, it has required 2,282 facilities to bring their emissions to the level of gas-fired facilities, thereby eliminating 1,900 tonnes of sulfur oxides emissions and 480 tonnes of nitrogen oxides emissions as of September, the bureau said.
State-run factories and top 20 polluters in the city have also eliminated 5,736 tonnes of emissions in the first nine months of this year, it added.
The bureau said it would continue to strictly supervise Taiwan-Japan Oxo Chemical’s construction project and require it to continue communicating with local residents.
The company is CPC Corp, Taiwan’s (台灣中油) joint venture with Japanese petrochemical firm KH Neochem Co, whose plant is expected to be completed by the end of 2020.
Additional reporting by Tsai Ching-hua
DEATH THREAT: A MAC official said that it has urged Beijing to avoid creating barriers that would impede exchanges across the Strait, but it continues to do so People should avoid unnecessary travel to China after Beijing issued 22 guidelines allowing its courts to try in absentia and sentence to death “Taiwan independence separatists,” the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday as it raised its travel alert for China, including Hong Kong and Macau, to “orange.” The guidelines published last week “severely threaten the personal safety of Taiwanese traveling to China, Hong Kong and Macau,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesman Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) told a news conference in Taipei. “Following a comprehensive assessment, the government considers it necessary to elevate the travel alert to orange from yellow,” Liang said. Beijing has
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) yesterday said that the Chinese Communist Party was planning and implementing “major” reforms, ahead of a political conclave that is expected to put economic recovery high on the agenda. Chinese policymakers have struggled to reignite growth since late 2022, when restrictions put in place due to the COVID-19 pandemic were lifted. The world’s second-largest economy is beset by a debt crisis in the property sector, persistently low consumption and high unemployment among young people. Policymakers “are planning and implementing major measures to further deepen reform in a comprehensive manner,” Xi said in a speech at the Great Hall
CIVIL DEFENSE: More reservists in alternative service would help establish a sound civil defense system for use in wartime and during natural disasters, Kuma Academy’s CEO said While a total of 120,000 reservists are expected to be called up for alternative reserve drills this year, compared with the 6,505 drilled last year, the number has been revised to 58,000 due to a postponed training date, Deputy Minster of the Interior Ma Shih-yuan (馬士元) said. In principle, the ministry still aims to call up 120,000 reservists for alternative reserve drills next year, he said, but the actual number would not be decided later until after this year’s evaluation. The increase follows a Legislative Yuan request that the Ministry of the Interior address low recruitment rates, which it made while reviewing
DETERRENCE: Along with US$500 million in military aid and up to US$2 billion in loans and loan guarantees, the bill would allocate US$400 million to countering PRC influence The US House of Representatives on Friday approved an appropriations bill for fiscal year 2025 that includes US$500 million in military aid for Taiwan. The legislation, which authorizes funding for the US Department of State, US foreign operations and related programs for next year, passed 212-200 in the Republican-led House. The bill stipulates that the US would provide no less than US$500 million in foreign military financing for Taiwan to enhance deterrence across the Taiwan Strait, and offer Taipei up to US$2 billion in loans and loan guarantees for the same purpose. The funding would be made available under the US’ Foreign Military