A lawyer campaigning against a liquid natural gas (LNG) terminal project in Taoyuan stressed the importance of environmental protection for future generations, while Minister of Economic Affairs Wang Mei-hua (???) insisted on a balanced approach to economic development in a televised forum on Saturday, ahead of a referendum on the project's fate.
In a forum that was part of the first series of televised forums ahead of the Dec. 18 referendums, lawyer Chen Hsien-cheng (???), who is also the director of the Wild at Heart Legal Defense Association, said that lack of transparency and public participation is common in development projects in Taiwan, including state-run CPC Corp. Taiwan's third LNG terminal project.
Despite the legal procedures required by the law, such as holding public hearings and environmental impact assessments, politics often overpowered what was designed to protect the public interest in not only the LNG project, but also many government policies, Chen said.
He said the drought experienced in Taiwan earlier this year and the torrential rain that hit eastern Taiwan in mid-October both demonstrated the government's lack of response to extreme weather caused by climate change.
He also noted that CPC Corp. Taiwan was not fined when a vessel used in the LNG project ran ashore and damaged 0.58 hectares of the algae reef along the coast of Taoyuan, despite laws such as the Coastal Zone Management Act that was enacted to "ensure zero loss of the natural coast."
With data from the Ministry of the Interior showing that 80 percent of Taiwan's west coast has been covered with concrete structures to prevent erosion, including the south bank of the Datan Power Plant, which the terminal is being built to serve, Chen said the Dec. 18 referendum offered the public another chance to review the project while the government is also expanding the existing two LNG terminals in central and southern Taiwan.
The government, he said, has chosen development over environmental protection, even though the impact of climate change has already caused damage to the economy, Chen said.
"What is the vote about?" Wang began her defense of the project by asking the audience, before saying that the vote is about whether to suspend a project, of which one-third has been completed, and relocate it to another place.
The minister then said the LNG project is an important part of the country's power supply infrastructure, which can achieve the goals of protecting the algae reef in the area, ensuring stable power supply, and cutting air pollution.
The government's role is to do what is the best for the country and it is trying to have open conversations about the project, such as in Saturday's televised forum, Wang said.
She also highlighted the importance of a stable power supply, which will partly rely on the Datan Power Plant, where new gas-burning units will be installed, because Taiwan has seen increased investment in the manufacturing sector, leading to higher power usage increases, which rose from 1.3 percent annually on average to 2.5 percent in recent years.
She appealed to people in central Taiwan by pointing out that annual coal usage in 2020 had been reduced by 6.10 million metric tons at the country's largest thermal power plant in Taichung compared to that in 2014, saying that voting to stop the LNG project will impact the efforts to reduce coal usage.
Wang then directed her speech at people in southern Taiwan, highlighting the importance of a stable power supply for attracting investment to the region, such as a plan recently announced by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. to build new plants in Kaohsiung.
Regarding environmental protection, Wang said that CPC offers a 24-hour video feed of the area in Taoyuan, and that with the help of experts, the area was already seeing growing clusters of Polycyathus chaishanensis, an endemic species of shallow water coral found only in Kaohsiung and Taoyuan.
The government's revised project to push the LNG terminal 450 meters away to 1.2 kilometers from the coast may not be perfect, but is the best solution for protecting the environment, Wang said.
The LNG plant referendum proposal was thought up by the Rescue Datan Algal Reefs Alliance convener Pan Chong-cheng (???), who along with other campaigners managed to collect more than 700,000 signatures in March which led to approval being granted to their motion on the fate of the LNG terminal to be voted on by the public.
It also led to the government revising its plan for the LNG terminal project in May, pushing it further away from the coast. The revised plan is undergoing an environmental assessment because of the changes made.
Besides the LNG plant, the public will be able to vote on three other referendum questions on Dec. 18 regarding a nuclear plant, pork imports with ractopamine, and future referendum arrangements.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel