The second phase environmental impact assessment of China Fire Gas was withdrawn. The environmental group called on Taipower to conduct a second phase environmental impact assessment.

The Taipei High Administrative Court ruled today to revoke the environmental impact assessment conclusion of the second phase of China Fire Gas. The environmental group called on the Ministry of Environment and Taipower to abandon the appeal and Taipower should conduct a more stringent second-level environmental impact assessment. The Ministry of Environment stated that it would review the decision after receiving the verdict and would not rule out an appeal.

The plan to build new gas-fired units in the second phase of the Taichung Thermal Power Plant passed the review of the Environmental Impact Assessment Conference on October 30, 2024. Environmental groups questioned that Taipower had not fully implemented the "add one and remove one" and retained 6 coal-fired units as emergency backup, causing objections. The local residents committee filed an administrative lawsuit in December of that year with the help of full-time lawyers from the Environmental Rights Protection Foundation and the Taiwan Wild Foot Ecological Association.

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The Taipei High Administrative Court issued a judgment today, revoking the environmental impact assessment conclusion of the second phase of China Fire Gas.

The Environmental Group issued a press release today stating that the second-stage environmental impact assessment (second-stage environmental impact assessment) is a relatively complete assessment process. The China Huo gas development project will make China Huo the largest thermal power plant in the world. However, it was deemed to have no significant impact on the environment and was exempted from the second-stage environmental impact assessment; and during the review process of this case, only one task force and one environmental impact assessment meeting were held and it was passed hastily.

The environmental group pointed out that Taipower provided wrong and loose air quality standards for review, and there were serious problems exceeding the standards during the construction period. What is even more outrageous is that this case did not conduct an air pollution assessment during operation according to the law, nor did it assess the impact of methane leakage on the environment and propose countermeasures.

In addition, the environmental group mentioned that Taipower has not proposed a sunset plan for six gas-fired and six backup coal-fired units, which does not comply with Taiwan's 2050 net-zero emissions standards and its legal obligation to formulate a medium- and long-term strategy to gradually reduce fossil fuel dependence.

The environmental group called on the Ministry of Environment and Taipower to abandon the appeal and directly proceed to the second-stage environmental impact assessment. In addition, Taipower should consider the local environmental carrying capacity and reduce the installation capacity of the second phase of China Gas; refer to the environmental impact assessment commitment of the first phase of China Gas, standardize the start-up standards for coal-fired backup units, and propose a sunset plan for coal-fired units and gas-fired units.

Huantuan said that Taipower should include methane leakage in the assessment of greenhouse gas emissions, and establish monitoring, reporting and verification as well as leakage detection and repair mechanisms; evaluate the feasibility of carbon capture, utilization and storage for all thermal power generating units in the plant, and adopt it in a timely manner; finally, conduct air pollution assessments during operation in accordance with the law, apply the latest air product standards, and propose environmental protection countermeasures.

The Ministry of Environment responded that it has not yet officially received the full text of the Taipei High Administrative Court's judgment. It will carefully consider it after receiving the judgment, and appeals have not been ruled out at this stage.