CPC Corp, Taiwan’s (CPC) plan to build a third liquefied natural gas terminal in Taoyuan was yesterday rejected by an environmental impact assessment committee, which asked it to submit more documentation by April.
The proposed terminal project at Guantang Industrial Park in the city’s Guanyin District (觀音) was turned down by the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) committee after a review meeting.
At a news conference before the meeting, environmental groups urged the committee to base its review on professionalism, not politics.
Photo: CNA
The project would jeopardize Polycyathus chaishanensis, an endangered species of coral, and algal reefs in the intertidal zones off Datan Borough (大潭), the groups said, calling on the company to build the terminal elsewhere.
The Council of Agriculture in a legislative session on Monday promised that it would spend about NT$10.73 million (US$364,941) to conduct a one-year study with Academia Sinica about local ecosystems starting in March, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Apollo Chen (陳學聖) said, urging the committee to postpone its review until the council’s report is released.
The groups stalled the meeting for more than two hours by challenging the legitimacy of its procedures and the council’s inaction in legally protecting the species.
Committee member Liu Ching-yu (劉靜榆), associate researcher at the council’s Endemic Species Research Institute, said the utility’s report contains many errors, such as the kind of species on Datan’s coast, and called on the committee to reject the project.
The project is urgent because it is expected to supply between 8 percent and 10 percent of the nation’s natural gas from July 2022, Bureau of Energy Deputy Director-General Lee Chun-li (李君禮) said.
If the terminal is to be built at another venue such as the ports of Taipei, Linkou or Taichung, it could only start supplying gas to the Datan Power Plant by 2027 or 2028, which would impede the government’s goal to generate half of the nation’s electricity from natural gas by 2025, the company said.
To reduce the project’s effect on the local ecology, the CPC said it has curtailed its development areas from 232 hectares to 37 hectares and canceled the construction plans for less relevant facilities, such as petrochemical products.
Schedule delay is the main reason the company did not opt for the other venues, CPC vice president J.Z. Fang (方振仁) said.
The company would avoid affecting or dislocating the protected coral in the intertidal zones, Fang said, adding that it would monitor the construction process around the clock through a closed-circuit television system.
The committee asked the developer to submit more documentation on ecology and another impact assessment by April 30, and advised the EPA to convene an expert meeting to discuss the project’s potential effect on local ecosystems.
‘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 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
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
RSS