Locals question USDP candidate over "clean coal"

Htay Myint was asked what the party will do for the region and the people living there, specifically on tackling two major issues: the unbearable stench from fish powder factories and the proposed building of coal-fired power plants in the region.

Htay Myint replied: “I have been to around 40 countries and their coal-fired power plants. There are no harmful by products. A 1,000 megawatt coal-fired power plant uses clean coal. In the previous election, we guaranteed electricity by using coal, but we received a lot of complaints and criticisms. So we started to hold environmental and social impact assessments and sent those making a lot of noise abroad to study clean coal power plants. But then, they came back and were afraid to go against the opinion of their organisations.“

When locals pointed out the air pollution situation in China and the plans to close down coal-fired plants in the coming years, Htay Myint insisted that people have the wrong idea about that the plants will be producing plumes of smoke all the time. He also said the shutting down of coal-fired plants in China only applies to small factories producing only low amounts of electricity to make way for power plants that will produce megawatts by the thousands.

He also claimed that news articles containing statistics and photos of the negative effects of coal-fired power plants are simply the opinions of the authors.

The local coal-fired power plant project has been repeatedly opposed by the local populace, and while petitions have been sent to President Thein Sein and the Snowy Mountains Engineering Corporation (SMEC), the USDP has been paying people to support the power plants projects.