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By Kao Shih-ching / employee reporter
The Taiwanese yesterday voted 51.6 percent to 48.4 percent against relocating a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal project from its planned location.
Official results showed that 4,163,464 people voted against and 3,901,171 people voted for it.
Voters were asked to vote on whether to move Taiwan’s third LNG terminal project from its proposed location near algae reefs off the Guanyin District of Taoyuan (觀音).
Photo: CNA
For a referendum to take place, the number of votes in favor must be 4.95 million, a quarter of the total number of eligible votes, and higher than the number of votes against.
A total of 19.82 million people were eligible to vote, but the turnout was only 41.09 percent, said the commission.
Environmentalist Pan Chong-cheng (潘忠政), who initiated the referendum, said at a press conference in Taipei that he and those in favor of moving the terminal project were disappointed with the result, but would accept it.
“We cannot be discouraged about the result, as we still have a lot to do to further protect the algae reefs,” he said.
Groups looking to protect the reefs would focus on the outcome of an environmental impact assessment of the project and whether CPC Corp, Taiwan would deliver on its promise to avoid damaging the reefs, Pan said.
Pan attributed the failure of the referendum to the government, saying that some information provided by officials was incorrect.
He said the referendum was not meant to stop the construction of the terminal but to relocate the project, Pan said.
“We found widespread support among young people in collecting signatures, but today the percentage of young people who have voted in the referendum is much lower than expected … Why? I think some of them got the wrong information, couldn’t make up their minds and decided not to vote, ”Pan said.
The government worked hard to encourage people to vote against the referendum and “environmental groups could not compete with the government,” he said.
The Ministry of Economic Affairs, which oversees the state project, said in a statement that the referendum results show that most Taiwanese are in favor of the government’s energy plans.
The ministry would require CPC to take environmental protection into account when building the terminal, it said.
CPC failed its first environmental impact assessment in October, but it has corrected the issues the review board identified as unsatisfactory and it will request a second assessment as soon as possible, said CPC spokesman Chang Ray-chung (張瑞宗).
While the issue began as the country’s first referendum on environmental protection, it became a political battleground – with the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), who feared the government’s energy plans would be compromised if the project were forced to relocate while the Chinese nationalist The Party (KMT) endorsed the referendum to criticize the performance of the DPP.
The ministry said the construction of the terminal is essential to the country’s energy security as the government plans to generate more electricity from burning natural gas as the other two terminals run at full capacity.
With the goal of phasing out nuclear power by 2025, the government plans to replace nuclear power with natural gas and green energy and increase the proportion of energy generated by burning natural gas to 50 percent, the ministry said.
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