The Environmental Impact Assessment Act (EIA Act, 環境影響評估法) needs to be r evised because it fails to protect the environment due to the involvement of po litical powers and developers' interests, legislators and environmentalists sai d yesterday. In the wake of the Environmental Protection Administration's (EPA) suggestion t hat a public development project, whose assessment had alrady been passed and t he project begun, be exempt from the application of a proposed referendum law d rafted by the Cabinet, both legislators and environmentalists questioned the ad ministration's sincerity in trying to prevent foreseeable environmental disaste rs resulting from development that went ahead on the basis of flawed or incompl ete assessments. At a press conference held yesterday at the Legislative Yuan, Democratic Progre ssive Party (DPP) legislators said environmental issues should be included in t he referendum law in order to balance the lack of public participation in the e xisting EIA regulations. "Many development cases involving assessments full of defects turn out to be so urces of environmental pollution," DPP Legislator Eugene Jao (趙永清) said. He said incomplete assessments hampered Taiwan from pursuing sustainable develo pment and low pollution. These assessments resulted in projects involving incin erators, freeways, landfills and other construction projects that had been join tly undertaken by a number of stakeholders. DPP Legislator Cheng Kuo-chung (鄭國忠) said the existing impact assessments, w hich lack public participation, have become tools used by the government to ens ure developers' interests are prioritized. "An ideal EIA Act should clearly reflect public will, which is one of the most important driving forces in a modern society," Cheng said. According to the EIA Act, public hearings only have to be held after the approv al of the first phase of the assessment, which gives developers the green light . "That's why there are so many environmental protests in Taiwan. Residents whose lives will be affected by development are always the last ones to learn about it," said Eric Liou (劉銘龍), secretary-general of the Taipei-based Environment al Quality Protection Foundation. DPP Legislator Su Chih-fen (蘇治芬) urged the EPA to revise the guidelines to f orm assessment committees because the government tends to invite obedient exper ts or professors to endorse development projects. "In a way, the EIA Act becomes a rubber stamp used to help promote policies," S u said. Shih Shin-min (施信民) of the Taiwan Environmental Protection Union (台灣環保聯 盟) said the construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant was an example of t he government using the assessment to not only promote nuclear power generation but also profit developers. "Cabinet's agencies involved with the project's unprofessional assessment have been censured by the Control Yuan. But the government still doesn't want to rev iew the project," Shih said. Tung Te-po (董德波), director general of the EPA's Department of Planning, said the power plant's assessment was passed in the early 1990s prior to the EIA Ac t becoming effective in December, 1994. However, he admitted that there's space to improve the act. "We will consider having the law revised by allowing the public to express thei r opinions before conducting the assessment," Tung said. ------ "An ideal Environmental Impact Assessment Act should clearly reflect public wil l, which is one of the most important driving forces in a modern society." DPP Legislator Cheng Kuo-chung ------ Copyright c 1999-2003 The Taipei Times. All rights reserved. --

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