The Ministry of Economic Affairs’ latest proposal for a proposed third liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal off the coast of Datan Borough (大潭) in Taoyuan’s Guanyin District (觀音) yesterday failed to make it out of the first environmental impact assessment (EIA) committee meeting at the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA).
The ministry said that if the project cannot go ahead as planned, “13.7 billion kilowatt-hours of power per year, equivalent to 5 million tonnes of coal,” would be missing from Taiwan’s power generation capacity.
That would set Taiwan’s decarbonization targets back, the ministry said, while environmental groups said that the proposal is still too disruptive to the fragile algal reef habitat off the coast of Datan.
Photo: Taipei Times file photo
Although some members of the committee, which was composed of field experts, supported the project, the committee’s conclusion after a public hearing and a closed-door discussion was that “more information is required” from CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油), which was instructed to clarify 14 points before it can hope to execute the project.
Deputy Minister of Economic Affairs Tseng Wen-sheng (曾文生), who said he was not disappointed by the result, promised to return to the proposal “in good faith” to see whether it could be “adjusted to accommodate the concerns of the committee members.”
“There were no expectations that this would be a swift process,” Tseng said. “We are aware that the assessments take time and, indeed, it would be unprecedented for the EPA to give this project the green light before December’s referendums.”
A referendum on the project is to be held on Dec. 18.
Rescue Datan’s Algal Reefs Alliance convener Pan Chong-cheng (潘忠政) criticized the ministry for holding a news conference before the committee meeting to underline the importance of the project to Taiwan’s energy security.
“They were trying to influence the outcome of the committee,” Pan said ahead of the meeting, calling on the government to hold public hearings.
Tseng told the news conference that the ministry “had a duty to speak out” due to the terminal’s importance to the nation’s energy transition policy, which would lower the amount of power generated from coal-fired plants from 40 percent to 30 percent and increase the amount generated from LNG-powered plants from 40 percent to 50 percent.
“I wish that environmental groups would look at the big picture when it comes to protecting the environment,” Tseng said, adding that LNG, although a fossil fuel, releases about half the greenhouse gasses of coal.
Without the proposed third terminal, Taiwan’s two existing terminals could not receive enough LNG to supply the Datan power plant, he said.
“Not only Taiwan’s decarbonization goals, but our plans for energy stability would be affected,” he said.
Although alternative sites had been proposed for the terminal, Tseng said they would have set the project back by at least a decade.
The CIA has a message for Chinese government officials worried about their place in Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) government: Come work with us. The agency released two Mandarin-language videos on social media on Thursday inviting disgruntled officials to contact the CIA. The recruitment videos posted on YouTube and X racked up more than 5 million views combined in their first day. The outreach comes as CIA Director John Ratcliffe has vowed to boost the agency’s use of intelligence from human sources and its focus on China, which has recently targeted US officials with its own espionage operations. The videos are “aimed at
STEADFAST FRIEND: The bills encourage increased Taiwan-US engagement and address China’s distortion of UN Resolution 2758 to isolate Taiwan internationally The Presidential Office yesterday thanked the US House of Representatives for unanimously passing two Taiwan-related bills highlighting its solid support for Taiwan’s democracy and global participation, and for deepening bilateral relations. One of the bills, the Taiwan Assurance Implementation Act, requires the US Department of State to periodically review its guidelines for engagement with Taiwan, and report to the US Congress on the guidelines and plans to lift self-imposed limitations on US-Taiwan engagement. The other bill is the Taiwan International Solidarity Act, which clarifies that UN Resolution 2758 does not address the issue of the representation of Taiwan or its people in
DEFENDING DEMOCRACY: Taiwan shares the same values as those that fought in WWII, and nations must unite to halt the expansion of a new authoritarian bloc, Lai said The government yesterday held a commemoration ceremony for Victory in Europe (V-E) Day, joining the rest of the world for the first time to mark the anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe. Taiwan honoring V-E Day signifies “our growing connections with the international community,” President William Lai (賴清德) said at a reception in Taipei on the 80th anniversary of V-E Day. One of the major lessons of World War II is that “authoritarianism and aggression lead only to slaughter, tragedy and greater inequality,” Lai said. Even more importantly, the war also taught people that “those who cherish peace cannot
US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo on Friday expressed concern over the rate at which China is diversifying its military exercises, the Financial Times (FT) reported on Saturday. “The rates of change on the depth and breadth of their exercises is the one non-linear effect that I’ve seen in the last year that wakes me up at night or keeps me up at night,” Paparo was quoted by FT as saying while attending the annual Sedona Forum at the McCain Institute in Arizona. Paparo also expressed concern over the speed with which China was expanding its military. While the US
RSS