Sacrifice the coast for green electricity? The Coastal Management Law makes way for the photoelectric law, and marine scholars question: the fundamental law of the land should not be loosened arbitrarily.

0 sharing

Since June this year, the Water Resources Department of the Ministry of Economic Affairs has set up a "first-level coastal protection plan" in accordance with the announcement of the "Coastal Management Law," covering six counties and cities in Changhua, Yunjia, and Nangaoping. It is estimated that dozens of surface optoelectronic development sites will be included. In accordance with the law, you must apply for the approval of the "Coastal Management Review Council" of the Ministry of the Interior before developing.

For this reason, the green energy industry greatly jumped. The Ministry of Economic Affairs released the trap for the substitute industry, and hastily negotiated with the Ministry of the Interior to amend the law. Recently, it announced that it would be exempted from examination for all less than five hectares, and opened the way for "fishing and power symbiosis."

However, Qiu Wenyan, the founder of the "Coastal Law", strongly opposes this move, believing that this amendment is tantamount to abolishing the martial arts skills of the superior law on land conservation in line with the monolithic thinking. He is even more worried that the coast is an ecologically sensitive and fragile area, and the relaxation of development standards may lead to the impact on many fragmentary ecological locations.

The content of the amendment: relaxing the threshold of photoelectric examination from one hectare to five hectares, and simplifying the procedure of symbiosis of fishing and electricity.

Since June this year, the Water Conservancy Department has successively announced the establishment of "first-level coastal protection zones" and land buffer zones in six counties and cities along the southwest coast, affecting a number of surface optoelectronic sites that are applying for development. According to Article 25 of the Coastal Management Law, the current first-level coastal protection area shall not carry out any development, and the development and utilization of coastal areas other than the "first-level coastal protection area" must apply for the permission of the competent authority. In accordance with the law, the Construction Department of the Ministry of the Interior of the competent authority shall convene the "Coastal Management Review Council" (referred to as the Sea Review Commission) to review the development case.

Taiwan's main coastal protection areas are concentrated in the six counties and cities of Changhua and Yunjia Nan Gaoping, which shows the importance of the land conservation issue on the southwest coast. (photo Source / Coastal area Management Information Network)

At the present stage, there are many surface optoelectronic development projects and symbiotic development cases of fishing and electricity, all of which are located in the buffer zone under the jurisdiction of the Coastal Law, and their progress has been seriously hindered. To this end, the Ministry of Economic Affairs urgently coordinated with the Ministry of the Interior to amend the law, and in order to avoid repeated review, the Ministry of the Interior relaxed the examination threshold from one hectare to five hectares, simplified the review process of symbiosis of fishing and electricity, and reduced the time and cost of development by the industry.

The Construction Department issued an amendment to the Coastal Management Law on November 19 to relax the relevant regulations for solar photovoltaic facilities. There are two key points in this revision of the law. The first is to relax the inspection threshold for optoelectronic facilities in coastal protection areas. As long as the location is located in the land buffer zone and does not involve changes in land use zoning, the review threshold will be relaxed from one hectare to five hectares. In other words, within the existing land buffer zone, solar photovoltaic development cases under five hectares will not have to be submitted to the Sea Adjudication Commission for examination.

The second point is that in view of the symbiosis of fishery and power, the Ministry of Economic Affairs has set up special zones for symbiosis of fishery and electricity. the Energy Bureau of the Ministry of Economic Affairs can submit a "feasibility analysis" planning report to the Ministry of the Interior for review and provide guiding principles. Then, in accordance with the guidance of the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Economic Affairs requires the developers to meet the above guidance.

The Ministry of the Interior said that in the future, after the Ministry of Economic Affairs revises the rules on the registration of the electricity industry, the examination content of the Ministry of the Interior will be included in the review of the power industry, and the symbiosis of fishing and power will only need to be submitted to the electricity industry for examination, and the Ministry of the Interior will not have to repeat the review.

Qiu Wenyan: the Coast Law is the superior law, and arbitrary relaxation may lead to the neglect of important habitats.

Qiu Wenyan, a former legislator and deputy director of the Environmental Protection Agency, promoted the Wetland Conservation Law and the Coastal Management Law during his term of office. Reviewing the functions of promoting the legislation of the Coastal Management Law based on conservation, disaster prevention, and sustainable development, he believes that the Ministry of the Interior has taken the initiative to amend the law and relax regulations for optoelectronic development, although it has reduced tedious administrative procedures, but ignored the original intention of the legislation.

"from the perspective of ecological and environmental protection, it is prudent to relax the rules. I am more worried that some ecological environment is a very small area, and some sensitive areas and habitats may be neglected in this relaxation process. " Qiu Wenyan commented, "the Ministry of the Interior should not first open the back door and then talk about gatekeeping." As a matter of fact, only with full dialogue can a complete assessment be made by the Maritime Review Commission or coastal experts and scholars. " Qiu stressed that he did not know the process of practicing the law, but was skeptical of the decision.

With regard to the fishery and power symbiosis zone, the Ministry of Economic Affairs will instead submit a feasibility analysis and planning report, and the case will be submitted to the Ministry of Economic Affairs for its own trial, while Qiu Wenyan has expressed his "opposition." He advocated that the "Coastal Management Law" is the superior law, and the Ministry of the Interior should make superior planning, not become passive.