Chou Demands Replacement of Environmental Impact Assessment Committee Member

2008 / 07 / 18

Taipei County Commissioner Chou Hsi-wei Calls Stipulation to Plant Trees as Condition to Pass Environmental Impact Assessment "Unprofessional"; Demands Replacement of Environmental Impact Assessment Committee Member 

Central News Agency 
3 July 2008 

Taipower's proposal to expand its Linkou Power Plant by adding additional generators yesterday was allowed to pass its environmental impact assessment on the condition that Taipower agree to plant 1,000 hectares of trees to offset carbon emissions. 

Taipei County Commissioner Chou Hsi-wei (周錫瑋) expressed outrage at the development, and called for the replacement of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Committee member Sue Lin (林素貞). Chou said that planting trees is incommensurate with Taipower emissions volumes, and criticized the committee members as "utterly unprofessional". 

Chou Hsi-wei's ire was raised by remarks made by Ms. Lin, the head of the EIA subcommittee charged with review of the Linkou Power Plant expansion project. Ms. Lin had condemned the Taipei County Government's opposition to the project, even threatening that, "If you insist on opposing, we'll do as in Kaohsiung, and approach senior officials, rally the public and environmental groups, and protest to the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA)." 

Cheng Hui-fen (鄭惠芬), a section chief at Taipei County's Environmental Protection Bureau said the condition of committing to plant a million trees was voluntarily proposed by Taipower itself, and had not been raised by the county government. Ms. Cheng said that according to Taipower's own calculations, a million trees would yield an annual carbon offset of only 135,000 tons, which would fall short of even 1 percent of the 13.26 million tons in additional carbon emissions that would result from the proposed additions to the Linkou Power Plant. What is more, if 1,000 trees could be planted per hectare, at least 1,000 hectares of land would be needed for the purpose. Ms. Cheng expressed skepticism that Taipower would honor the commitment: "Where in Taipei County could space be found to plant those trees — one hardly supposes they're going to evacuate all the residents of Banciao to make room for trees?" 

The county government also questioned Taipower's continuing failure to produce power demand estimates — just how short on power is Taipei County? — and suggested that Taipower may be dangling the threat of power limits and impact on economic development to push through its agenda of thermal power plant expansion. The Environmental Protection Bureau noted that despite Taipower's goodwill gesture of planting trees, the carbon offset from tree planting would be incommensurate — at a mere 1 percent — with the carbon emissions, and other supporting countermeasures are lacking. 

After hearing the opinions of the EIA committee members, County Commissioner Chou Hsi-wei expressed strong dissatisfaction with Taipower's tactics and with the process by which the EIA committee had granted approval, and appealed specifically for the removal of Sue Lin from the committee. 

* * *

Source: 

周錫瑋：種樹換環評不專業 籲撤環評委員

中央社╱中央社 2008-07-03 00:06

（中央社記者黃旭昇台北縣二日電）台電「林口火力發電廠擴建機組更新案」今天中午有條件通過環境影響評估，台電允諾將種植一千公頃的樹來彌補燃媒過程中所排放的二氧化碳。台北縣長周錫瑋今晚獲悉後表示震怒，並具體點名要求撤換環保署環評委員林素貞。他表示，台電排碳量與種樹不成比例，委員一點都不專業。

會引起周錫瑋強烈的不滿，肇因於環保署環評會有關林口火力發電廠本案，小組召集委員林素貞，在討論時對於台北縣府的反對意見不認同，甚至嗆聲「如果你們堅持要反對的話，要比照高雄，找副縣長以上的層級官員，帶領民眾以及環保團體，到環保署抗議。」

台北縣政府環保局科長鄭惠芬晚間表示，台電承諾在台北縣種一百萬棵樹減碳，是台電主動提出，不是縣政府要求。

她表示，依據台電自己的估算，一百萬棵樹每年只有十三萬五千公噸減碳效果，還不及林口電廠擴建三個機組後增加碳排放量一千三百二十六萬公噸的百分之一。其次，以每公頃種一千棵樹計算，需要一千公頃土地才夠種，她質疑台電的環評承諾「可能跳票」。台北縣要去哪找這些空地來種樹，難道板橋市都不要住人，全部用來種樹？

另外，縣政府所質疑的是，台電遲遲並未提出電力需求評估，到底台北縣缺電多少？甚至放任以限電以及經濟發展來威脅，企圖達到通過擴建火力發電廠的目的。環保局表示，雖然台電以種樹釋出善意，但種樹減碳與排碳不成比例，僅有百分之一，缺乏其他配套措施。

周錫瑋晚間聽取環保局報告相關環評委員的意見之後，對於台電的作法以及環保署環評委員的審查過程，表達強烈不滿，且具體要求環保署要撤換環評委員。970702。 


transdept\Wild\trn1878_Linkou Power Plant EIA