What is a reasonable price to pay for a liter of gasoline? The current price in Taiwan of about NT$36 per liter is a lot more than the NT$20-odd that it cost many years ago, but does that really means the price is high?
Of course, there are many possible answers to this question. It depends on what angle you are coming from.
Petroleum is categorized as a fossil fuel, because it is formed through the decomposition of biological substances accumulated over millions of years. At the rate at which we are using petroleum, it is a non-renewable resource. In fact, it is estimated that there are only enough usable oil reserves around the world to last for another 50 years or so. From this point of view alone, when you consider that the price of a liter of gasoline is only about twice what it costs to buy a liter of bottled water from a supermarket, it can be seen that the price of oil is really too low.
Of course, the price of oil is not the only problem associated with the commodity. The environmental issue that is causing the most concern these days is global warming and the biggest cause of global warming is the combustion of oil, coal and other fossil fuels. Besides, the extraction, transport and refining of oil cause pollution, and they can easily cause ecological disasters like the calamitous BP oil spill that struck the Gulf of Mexico two years ago.
A few days ago, the US Department of the Interior approved a permit for Shell to start preparatory work for extracting oil in Alaska, within the Arctic Circle. This decision has aroused strong criticism from environmental groups, because the region is one of the few remaining integral natural environments in the US. Oil extraction is certain to cause serious and irreversible effects on the region, and to have a heavy impact on the lives and livelihoods of the region’s indigenous people — the Inuit.
Oil prices have been kept too low for too long, failing to take into account the cost of production and the negative results of oil use. The low oil price, along with the influence of politics, is one of the reasons why the development of renewable energy resources like wind power has been so slow in Taiwan. In Germany, wind turbines can be seen all over the country and what makes this possible is that the private individuals, groups, villages and businesses that build these turbines can conveniently sell the energy they generate to electricity companies at a reasonable price. However, in Taiwan, where electricity distribution is a monopoly, private investors are not keen to invest in wind generators and so the sector has not flourished.
The main reason why the US launched its widely criticized war against Iraq was to stabilize its sources of cheap oil. Of course, the business of oil refining and supply is a near-monopoly in Taiwan, and the issue of monopolies needs to be critically discussed. In the long term, however, we must look at the issues from the standpoints of the environment and future generations when we consider what is a reasonable price to pay for oil.
Chi Chun-chieh is a professor in the Department of Ethnic Relations and Cultures at National Dong Hwa University.
Translated by Julian Clegg
What began on Feb. 28 as a military campaign against Iran quickly became the largest energy-supply disruption in modern times. Unlike the oil crises of the 1970s, which stemmed from producer-led embargoes, US President Donald Trump is the first leader in modern history to trigger a cascading global energy crisis through direct military action. In the process, Trump has also laid bare Taiwan’s strategic and economic fragilities, offering Beijing a real-time tutorial in how to exploit them. Repairing the damage to Persian Gulf oil and gas infrastructure could take years, suggesting that elevated energy prices are likely to persist. But the most
Taiwan should reject two flawed answers to the Eswatini controversy: that diplomatic allies no longer matter, or that they must be preserved at any cost. The sustainable answer is to maintain formal diplomatic relations while redesigning development relationships around transparency, local ownership and democratic accountability. President William Lai’s (賴清德) canceled trip to Eswatini has elicited two predictable reactions in Taiwan. One camp has argued that the episode proves Taiwan must double down on support for every remaining diplomatic ally, because Beijing is tightening the screws, and formal recognition is too scarce to risk. The other says the opposite: If maintaining
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文), during an interview for the podcast Lanshuan Time (蘭萱時間) released on Monday, said that a US professor had said that she deserved to be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize following her meeting earlier this month with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). Cheng’s “journey of peace” has garnered attention from overseas and from within Taiwan. The latest My Formosa poll, conducted last week after the Cheng-Xi meeting, shows that Cheng’s approval rating is 31.5 percent, up 7.6 percentage points compared with the month before. The same poll showed that 44.5 percent of respondents
India’s semiconductor strategy is undergoing a quiet, but significant, recalibration. With the rollout of India Semiconductor Mission (ISM) 2.0, New Delhi is signaling a shift away from ambition-driven leaps toward a more grounded, capability-led approach rooted in industrial realities and institutional learning. Rather than attempting to enter the most advanced nodes immediately, India has chosen to prioritize mature technologies in the 28-nanometer to 65-nanometer range. That would not be a retreat, but a strategic alignment with domestic capabilities, market demand and global supply chain gaps. The shift carries the imprimatur of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, indicating that the recalibration is
RSS