Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers and environmentalists yesterday called on the Taichung City Government to revoke the coal-use permits it has awarded the Taichung Power Plant, which they said is the “dirtiest power plant in the world.”
KMT legislators representing electoral districts in Taichung, andYunlin, Changhua and Nantou counties called a news conference at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei to address the permit extension issue.
The Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau on Nov. 13 rejected the power plant’s application to extend the permits for nine of its 10 coal-fired generators and required the plant to provide additional documentation within 30 days.
Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times
Bureau Director-General Pai Chih-jung (白智榮) on Wednesday said in a statement that the bureau had approved a two-year extension of the plant’s permits, but cut its maximum coal usage by 5 million tonnes, or 24 percent, from the previous limit of 21 million tonnes.
“The permitted amount of coal consumption for Taichung Power Plant has been cut for the first time,” Pai said, adding that the city’s air quality has imrpoved due to the city government’s efforts.
The power plant consumes about 18 million tonnes of coal per year, which means that the bureau only cut about 2 million off the plant’s actual consumption, Taiwan Healthy Air Action Alliance director Yeh Kuang-peng (葉光芃) said at yesterday’s news conference.
Taichung Mayor Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) of the Democratic Progressive Party has proposed “jointly managing” regional affairs, but the bureau’s review process did not involve residents in adjacent municipalities who are also affected by the plant’s pollution, Yeh said.
The city government should stop mincing words to conceal the difference between “permitted” consumption and “actual” consumption, he added.
“The city government is playing a game of deception,” KMT Legislator Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) said. “The city government should revoke its approval for the permit extension.”
Local groups are to voice their demands for better air quality at several activities in front of Taichung City Hall from Monday to Friday next week, Yeh said.
People who want to take part in an anti-pollution march on Dec. 17 initiated by the alliance should dress in gray or black clothes to express their frustration with the nation’s bad air quality, KMT Legislator Lu Hsiu-yen (盧秀燕) said.
The city government said in a statement that KMT lawmakers should not use the pollution issue for their own political benefit, especially if they plan on standing in next year’s mayoral election — an apparent reference to Chiang and Lu, who have said that they will seek their party’s nomination to for Taichung mayor.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is maintaining close ties with Beijing, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, hours after a new round of Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait began. Political parties in a democracy have a responsibility to be loyal to the nation and defend its sovereignty, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) told a news conference in Taipei. His comments came hours after Beijing announced via Chinese state media that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command was holding large-scale drills simulating a multi-pronged attack on Taiwan. Contrary to the KMT’s claims that it is staunchly anti-communist, KMT Deputy
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
RSS