VZCZCXRO4493
RR RUEHHM RUEHLN RUEHMA RUEHPB RUEHPOD
DE RUEHIN #1440/01 1760603
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 250603Z JUN 07
FM AIT TAIPEI
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 5782
INFO RUEHZN/ENVIRONMENT SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY COLLECTIVE
RUEHBJ/AMEMBASSY BEIJING 6962
RUEHJA/AMEMBASSY JAKARTA 4093
RUEHUL/AMEMBASSY SEOUL 8748
RUEHKO/AMEMBASSY TOKYO 8894
RUEHHM/AMCONSUL HO CHI MINH CITY 0106

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 TAIPEI 001440 
 
SIPDIS 
 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
OES/EGC FOR TRIGG TALLEY 
 STATE PASS EPA/OIA K. MCASKILL 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: SENV ECON PREL CH TW
SUBJECT: TAIWAN EPA: FOCUS ON EIA AND CLIMATE CHANGE 
 
TAIPEI 00001440  001.2 OF 002 
 
 
¶1.  (SBU)  SUMMARY. USEPA Associate Program Manager for 
China/East Asia Kelly McAskill visited Taiwan on June 11-15 
to discuss ongoing programs with Taiwan and to plan for the 
next Conference on Issues of Common Concern, which is planned 
for August 13-16 in Hawaii and will address transboundary 
pollution issues.  The USEPA and Taiwan EPA (TEPA) altogether 
have 16 cooperative projects covering aspects of air quality 
monitoring, hazardous wastes, indoor air quality, marine and 
port pollution and water quality.  McAskill told TEPA that 
the USEPA would focus future cooperation on transboundary 
pollution issues as they are of mutual concern. 
Newly-appointed TEPA minister Winston Dang said his priority 
was revising the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) 
process to make it more responsive and transparent.  He 
expressed a wish to visit Washington DC after the proposed 
EPA conference in mid-August.  AIT also scheduled a meeting 
with local NGO's to hear their complaints about the EIA 
process, which in their view is becoming more exclusive.  END 
SUMMARY. 
 
MEETING WITH TEPA MINISTER DANG 
------------------------------- 
 
¶2.  (SBU)  AIT ESTHOFF and USEPA Associate program manager 
Kelly McAskill met with newly-appointed TEPA minister Winston 
Dang on June 11 to discuss his priorities for TEPA and 
bilateral cooperation.  Dang said he spent 15 years through 
2005 working at USEPA on risk assessment issues and that the 
EIA process is one of his priorities.  He noted that the EIA 
members were not experts in environmental issues and hoped to 
attract more experts to conduct assessments.  He also said 
the EIA process needed to be more transparent.  In addition, 
Dang observed that he recently traveled to Penghu and 
observed that the island's garbage disposal sites are 
limited.  As a result, he wants to help them find a more 
permanent solution, since transport to Taiwan proper is 
subject to weather conditions.  Dang also expressed interest 
in regional office development to expand TEPA's scope. 
McAskill told Dang that USEPA's international work in Asia 
emphasizes environmental impacts to the global environment 
and the United States, such as transboundary air pollution. 
McAskill also explained that the EPA's office of 
International Affairs is conducting a priority setting 
exercise due to budget cuts and the management of the Taiwan 
program-like all other programs - is under discussion. 
 
¶3.  (SBU)  Local pollution concerns will be less of a USEPA 
focus and emphasis will shift to international issues (NOTE: 
Currently, EPA has a number of air quality monitoring 
projects with TEPA covering transboundary movement of 
pollutants such as mercury, aerosols and carbon emissions. 
END NOTE)  TEPA officials said Taiwan ranks 21st in the world 
for overall CO2 emissions and has undertaken to reduce CO2 
emissions, although it is not part of the Kyoto Protocol. 
Taiwan is also interested in carbon exchange regimes that 
will allow it to trade CO2 emissions with other countries, 
but because it is not part of the UN system it has yet to 
find the mechanism to reach this goal. 
 
TAIWAN NGO'S: EIA PROCESS FLAWED 
-------------------------------- 
 
¶4.  (SBU)  On June 13, AIT arranged a meeting with local 
NGO's to get their views on Taiwan environmental issues. 
Participants included: Robin Winkler, a lawyer with many 
years experience in environmental issues and a member of the 
Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) of TEPA; Gloria Hsu, 
Chair of Taiwan's Environmental Protection Union, as well as 
a member of TEPA's EIA team; and Chao Chia-wei, member of the 
Taiwan Environmental Action Network (TEAN).  The NGO's all 
agreed that Taiwan's EIA process needs revising to make it 
more inclusive, transparent and not subject to the whims of 
political interests.  Currently, there are three major public 
infrastructure projects in the pipeline, a steel plant and 
naphtha cracker plant for Yunlin County in Southern Taiwan, 
and the superhighway project linking Hualien with Suao on the 
east coast. Each, however, is stalled due to environmental 
controversy.  Winkler mentioned that in one EIA case 
concerning the steel plant in Yunlin County - which could 
produce 20 million tons of annual emissions, place a heavy 
burden on water use and endanger the local ecosystem - TEPA 
officials suggested that five EIA members opposed the project 
 
TAIPEI 00001440  002.2 OF 002 
 
 
to "recuse" themselves so that the project could be approved. 
 There are also indications that TEPA may not renew the EIA 
memberships of those EIA members unwilling to limit their 
opposition to the major projects currently proposed.   Hsu 
said that some members of the Executive Yuan believe they can 
dispense with the EIA process altogether and just hire legal 
experts.  The NGO's also noted that coal-fired plants in the 
PRC were the main source of the acid rain over Taiwan.  This 
problem will worsen if Taiwan builds more coal-fired power 
plants in the future. 
 
MOTOR VEHICLE EMISSIONS WORKSHOP AND OTHER PROJECTS 
--------------------------------------------- ------ 
 
¶5.  (SBU)  USEPA and TEPA have an ongoing project to hold a 
vehicle emissions workshop in Southeast Asia to help 
countries in the area control their vehicle emissions.  TEPA 
noted that Vietnam has many mopeds, and Taiwan also has a 
large moped assembly factory in Vietnam, while Thailand has a 
large fleet of diesel vehicles and Indonesia recently phased 
out lead in its gasolines.  Taiwan's expertise could be 
valuable in helping those countries establish emissions 
standards, vehicle inspection procedures, and fuel standards. 
 
 
USEPA-TEPA ENVIRONMENT CONFERENCE 
--------------------------------- 
 
¶4.  (SBU)  The Environment Conference on Issues of Common 
Concern this year is scheduled for August 13-16, most likely 
in Hawaii.  The focus of discussion will be transboundary 
pollution and climate change.  TEPA informed AIT that 
Minister Winston Dang wants to attend the opening session and 
meet with local environmental officials and perhaps visit an 
air monitoring station in Mauna Loa before continuing to 
Washington, where he hopes to meet EPA Administrator Steve 
Johnson, who was once his boss, as well as former EPA 
Administrator and current HHS Secretary Michael Leavitt. 
USEPA is laying the groundwork for the conference and 
identifying experts to participate in the discussions.  AIT 
will be coordinating closely with USEPA and TEPA on this 
conference. 
 
 
YOUNG