The Legislative Yuan’s Economics Committee held its first public hearing on a proposed amendment to the Electricity Act (電業法) yesterday, after the Executive Yuan submitted it to the legislature on Oct. 20.
The proposed amendment aims to gradually liberalize the electricity industry and help to develop the nation’s renewable energy industry.
At the hearing in Taipei, National Taipei University professor of economics Wang To-far (王塗發) said the Executive Yuan should withdraw the amendment and redraft it, as the scale of the liberalization is too small to make an impact on the industry.
Wang is a strong advocate for the liberalization of the local power industry, saying that state-run Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) should separate its power generation and electricity distribution businesses to provide private operators with the leeway to participate in the domestic energy business.
However, under the Executive Yuan’s amendment, Taipower is to be divided into two companies within six to nine years, to separate power generation and electricity distribution.
Wang said that the government measures aim to do too little, too slowly.
“What kind of reform is this?” Wang asked.
Other participants also criticized the proposed amendment for being mainly focused on the “green” energy sector, rather than an across-the-board liberalization to deregulate the nation’s energy industry.
According to the draft amendment, “green” energy firms would be allowed to sell and transmit electricity to users directly, with the price to be decided by market mechanisms.
Tang Hui-lin (唐慧琳), a research assistant at the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) National Policy Foundation think tank, said that lawmakers should return the draft amendment to the Executive Yuan because it is not complete.
National Tsing Hua University Institute of Law for Science and Technology associate professor Anton Gao (高銘志) said he agrees that the government should amend the Electricity Act, but it should also revise the Renewable Energy Development Act (再生能源條例) to better help develop the “green” energy industry.
The Economics Committee decided to hold a second public hearing on Monday after four hours of heated discussion.
The committee would not start reviewing the amendment until it judges that no more public hearings are required, committee convener Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Huang Wei-cher (黃偉哲) said.
DIVIDED VIEWS: Although the Fed agreed on holding rates steady, some officials see no rate cuts for this year, while 10 policymakers foresee two or more cuts There are a lot of unknowns about the outlook for the economy and interest rates, but US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell signaled at least one thing seems certain: Higher prices are coming. Fed policymakers voted unanimously to hold interest rates steady at a range of 4.25 percent to 4.50 percent for a fourth straight meeting on Wednesday, as they await clarity on whether tariffs would leave a one-time or more lasting mark on inflation. Powell said it is still unclear how much of the bill would fall on the shoulders of consumers, but he expects to learn more about tariffs
Meta Platforms Inc offered US$100 million bonuses to OpenAI employees in an unsuccessful bid to poach the ChatGPT maker’s talent and strengthen its own generative artificial intelligence (AI) teams, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has said. Facebook’s parent company — a competitor of OpenAI — also offered “giant” annual salaries exceeding US$100 million to OpenAI staffers, Altman said in an interview on the Uncapped with Jack Altman podcast released on Tuesday. “It is crazy,” Sam Altman told his brother Jack in the interview. “I’m really happy that at least so far none of our best people have decided to take them
NOT JUSTIFIED: The bank’s governor said there would only be a rate cut if inflation falls below 1.5% and economic conditions deteriorate, which have not been detected The central bank yesterday kept its key interest rates unchanged for a fifth consecutive quarter, aligning with market expectations, while slightly lowering its inflation outlook amid signs of cooling price pressures. The move came after the US Federal Reserve held rates steady overnight, despite pressure from US President Donald Trump to cut borrowing costs. Central bank board members unanimously voted to maintain the discount rate at 2 percent, the secured loan rate at 2.375 percent and the overnight lending rate at 4.25 percent. “We consider the policy decision appropriate, although it suggests tightening leaning after factoring in slackening inflation and stable GDP growth,”
PLANS: MSI is also planning to upgrade its service center in the Netherlands Micro-Star International Co (MSI, 微星) yesterday said it plans to set up a server assembly line at its Poland service center this year at the earliest. The computer and peripherals manufacturer expects that the new server assembly line would shorten transportation times in shipments to European countries, a company spokesperson told the Taipei Times by telephone. MSI manufactures motherboards, graphics cards, notebook computers, servers, optical storage devices and communication devices. The company operates plants in Taiwan and China, and runs a global network of service centers. The company is also considering upgrading its service center in the Netherlands into a
RSS