1. Debate over the controversial Suao-Hualien expressway has been running for almost 20 years, with the project in limbo awaiting the completion of an environmental impact assessment review. Critics ridiculed Premier Liu Chao-shiuan’s attempt to repackage the highway as an “alternative road plan,” labeling it “old wine in a new bottle.”
2. The Council of Agriculture announced that 96 coral-harvesting licenses would be issued to individuals who had previously been conducting the activity illegally. The COA described the decision as “effective management,” but environmentalists dismissed this claim, arguing that it would in fact threaten endangered coral habitats.
3. Formosa Plastics Group founder Wang Yung-ching’s passing was mourned across the nation. But according to TEIA, Wang’s longest-lasting legacy will be the mega-industrial plants that produce 25 percent of the nation’s total greenhouse gas emissions.
4. Miramar Group, one of Taiwan’s oldest family-run business empires, was accused of thumbing its nose at local laws by starting construction at Shanyuan Beach in Taitung County without completing the necessary environmental impact assessment review.
5. Ship groundings off the coasts of Orchid Island and Taipei County’s Shihmen Township, along with the government’s bungled efforts to clean up the subsequent oil spills, sparked fresh calls for a ministry tasked with managing ocean affairs.
6. The ruling Kuomintang’s greenlighting of expansion plans for several coal-fired plants raised concerns that the government had abandoned policies to conserve energy and cut carbon emissions.
7. The threat of “massive” environmental degradation posed by President Ma Ying-jeou’s “i-Taiwan 12 projects” prompted citizens to call on Taiwan’s leader to respect his election promise of protecting the island’s ecosystems.
8. Xiaoli River, which runs through Taoyuan and Hsinchu counties, was allegedly polluted by high-tech companies AU Optronics Corp. and Chunghwa Picture Tubes Ltd., leading to calls for closer monitoring of industrial outfits and their waste treatment processes.
9. Local environmental groups demanded the government take immediate action to protect Taiwan’s remaining Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins. It was suggested that the dolphin’s habitat in the eastern Taiwan Strait should be set aside as a preservation zone as soon as possible, with any kind of development in the area prohibited.
10. The decision to transfer ownership and operation of Alishan mountain train to private enterprise prompted environmentalists to accuse the Council of Agriculture’s Forestry Bureau of “gambling with passengers’ lives.” Of the company’s 50 drivers, only nine have experience on the high-altitude railway, leading to fears of derailments.
Write to June Tsai at june@mail.gio.gov.tw