The environmental impact assessment (EIA) procedure needs to be overhauled so that controversial projects can be reviewed more thoroughly and political responsibility is more clearly defined, environmentalists said yesterday.
The Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) today will hold its fifth EIA meeting related to a controversial petrochemical project planned by Kuokuang Petrochemical Technology Co for a wetlands area in Changhua County.
Environmental activists have criticized the EIA process, calling its as flawed.
Chen Ping-hsuan (陳平軒), spokesperson of the National Youth Alliance Against Kuokuang Petrochemical Project, said members of the EIA committee reviewing the project had come under excessive political pressure because they had the power to veto the project.
Chen said the final decision on the project should not be made based solely on the EPA’s judgment. Instead, the Executive Yuan should convene interdepartmental meetings to weigh a wide range of issues, from environmental protection to economic development.
“It is the Executive Yuan, not the EPA, that should be the gatekeeper of the review process so we know who can be held substantively responsible for the decision,” he said.
Such a broad review was necessary for projects such as the Kuokuang petrochemical complex plan because they could have a substantial impact on all government branches, far beyond the reach of the EPA, the activist said.
Chen also worried that because the EPA has been given de facto veto power by politicians, the EIA committee members would be forced to consider “political issues that are not related to their expertise” because they do not want to upset the authorities.
Chen said the EIA process should rely on more formal formats, such as administrative hearings, rather than the semi-public meetings used at present where comments by committee members are not a matter of public record.
The government has suggested conducting an EIA for the country’s petrochemical industry policy as a whole, an idea that Chao Chia-wei, the coordinator of the Green Citizens’ Action Alliance, believes would be a step forward.
However, he said it should take place before the authorities decided whether to give a nod to the Kuokuang project.
Source: Taipei Times - 2011/04/21
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