Pm Concerned More Projects At Risk

[webfact]

Environmental Impact: PM concerned more projects at risk

BANGKOK, Oct 13 (TNA) – Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva on Monday conceded he is concerned that many more investment projects could violate the Constitution's Section 67 if the Central Administrative Court rules that 76 projects in the Mab Ta Phut industrial estate failed to comply with regulations prescribed in the section governing a required study and evaluation of environmental impacts.

Still, he did not believe the number of the projects would reach 500 as claimed by non-governmental organizations.

The premier voiced his concern after learning that NGOs planned to petition the Administrative Court seeking its order to suspend operations of 500 more projects nationwide which it claimed failed to comply with Section 67.

He said the issue had worried the government. Should the court rule the 76 projects in Mab Ta Phut were approved in the post-2007 Constitution failed to abide by the Section 67, many more projects of a similar nature could experience the same action.

"We need to wait for the court's ruling if there is an additional petition," the prime minister said. "Should the court rule in favor of the NGO's petition, we must appeal the court."

Mr. Abhisit affirmed projects, which had been already implemented by the government, do not contravene the regulations prescribed in the section.

The issue would be raised for consideration at the cabinet's meeting on Tuesday.

He said the government had attempted to create a proper understanding among investors because many projects were approved, but are temporarily suspended.

"No matter how the court rules, we have to respect and comply with it," he said. (TNA)

-- TNA 2009/10/13

[animatic]

Basically this comes down to being CHEAP on a grand scale.

They could just run up a new environmental assessment pretty quickly, and keep on going.

The upshot would be partly; more efficient, less wasteful enterprises,

and less risk of employee illnesses in the future.

But people are freaking about a ) delays b ) increases in budget.

Oh oh it will c-c-c-ccost us more money to protect the environment.

Heard that song and dance many times before.

The enforcement has been so lax before they figured ignore it,

and got caught with pants down.

Well they have the means to shorten the delay,

but are trying to stop the rules implementation first.

And/or get someone else to foot the bill for their business being environmentally immoral...

The increase in needed budget will ONLY be bad for those

showing no regard for the health of those around their plants anyway.

They should just shut up, bite the bullet and meet the better standards of environmental protection.

Which are without a doubt much less stringent than many, many other countries...

which no doubts contributed to their building plants in Thailand.

But doing the right thing is not the highest priority for many companies trying to do business here.

Edited October 13, 2009 by animatic

[TAWP]

Publish a list of the companies we are talking about?

[irishbri]

Surely the first line should read "PM Concerned that investors may have to abide by Thai Law". That is what's happening is it not. The vast majority of these companies were given permission to proceed within the last 3 years which is AFTER the coup. They were given the go ahead by Governmental agencies which obviously did not follow the letter of the law. Sounds like Mr "Oh so good and nice" PM is not allowed, or cannot say NO, or maybe some people think he should ignore environmental protection laws as its "good" for investment?????

[Plus]

There were two governments before Abhisit that didn't do anything.

Democrats tried to set up an "independent" panel to do Health Impact Assessments, as required by Constitution, but some protested it wasn't independent enough, so it was back to the drawing board, and then Map Ta Put ruling brought it into the focus again.

There are many stakeholders in this independent assessment business, I don't think they'd resolve the issue to everybody's satisfaction any time soon and the potential for lawsuits will always hang over any project. For now they are trying to deal with specific cases and specific complaints, it should be faster.

[thaihome]

Basically this comes down to being CHEAP on a grand scale.

They could just run up a new environmental assessment pretty quickly, and keep on going.

The upshot would be partly; more efficient, less wasteful enterprises,

and less risk of employee illnesses in the future.

But people are freaking about a ) delays b ) increases in budget.

Oh oh it will c-c-c-ccost us more money to protect the environment.

Heard that song and dance many times before.

The enforcement has been so lax before they figured ignore it,

and got caught with pants down.

Well they have the means to shorten the delay,

but are trying to stop the rules implementation first.

And/or get someone else to foot the bill for their business being environmentally immoral...

The increase in needed budget will ONLY be bad for those

showing no regard for the health of those around their plants anyway.

They should just shut up, bite the bullet and meet the better standards of environmental protection.

Which are without a doubt much less stringent than many, many other countries...

which no doubts contributed to their building plants in Thailand.

But doing the right thing is not the highest priority for many companies trying to do business here.

You don’t have a clue about what you are talking about. Every one of the 76 plants has done a full EIA that would meet any international standard and they are in full compliance with them. The local communities have been involved and have had their input included. There is no need to do another one. They are publically available if anyone would be really interested.

What this is about is the fact that an agency that was supposed to be setup to approve these projects was never setup. That does not mean the projects would not have been approved if given the opportunity to do so. It is a purely technical ruling that has nothing do with if the plants are going to contribute further to the pollution problem. or not

TH

[animatic]

Spoken like someone with a vested interest in getting a project back on line.

There was an earlier evaluation that many passed, and a more recent evaluation,

and the later one is given precedence over the older one, by the court.

It seems to have been considered lax. Many of these companies passed the older one,

and are now screaming to be given a pass vs the higher standard.

ie. reduced environmental standards vs more investment for them.

And the court ruled the more stringent standard applies regardless.

And that is what this is about.

And Abhisit is trying to salvage INVESTOR confidence,

by seeming to fight for their interests before some bail

on Thailand at this critical finacial time.

[TAWP]

What this is about is the fact that an agency that was supposed to be setup to approve these projects was never setup. That does not mean the projects would not have been approved if given the opportunity to do so. It is a purely technical ruling that has nothing do with if the plants are going to contribute further to the pollution problem. or not

TH

But it still means they never had the proper paperwork as they were supposed to, non-withstanding that the reason was that the agency wasn't set up.

[animatic]

Make that a more recent evaluation standard set to be used,

and those that passed the older one, are screaming because

now they must pass a more stringent one or be denied permits.

It's really down to money.