Everyone's Mr. Fixit and gangster-temple leader moonlighting as politician, Non-Partisan Solidarity Union Legislator Yen Ching-piao (顏清標) came out with this pearl yesterday:
“Although environmental protection is crucial, it is more important to carry out a policy that helps local development”
Why? So he could defend the construction of the Kuokuang Petrochemical Park at the mouth of Jhuoshuei River (濁水溪) in Changhua County. It gets better:
Ignoring activists who say the more than NT$400 billion (US$12.4 billion) project will destroy the habitat of the white dolphins — locally called “Matsu’s fish” (媽祖魚), Yen criticized an Environmental Protection Administration plan to build a marine “eco-corridor” for the endangered species.
Rather than spending NT$20 billion to NT$30 billion on the corridor, Yen said the money should be used to help underprivileged people, he said.
Yen is right on one thing. It is a waste of money to build a channel that the dolphins will likely never use. Instead, why not develop green industries instead of building the inevitably polluting petrochemical park in the first place. When exactly will this Government's 'green policies' actually start to get implemented? I used to call Kaohsiung 'Mordor' because of its skyline of petro-chemical industry and the pollution in the city but it seems that Changhua and Taichung Counties are seeking to win that dubious title for themselves.
