Legislators across party lines yesterday voted to pass the Act Governing Development of Renewable Energy (再生能源發展條例), nine years after the bill was proposed.
The Act empowers the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) to reward power companies that have generated between 6.5 million kilowatts and 10 million kilowatts of electricity from renewable energy sources. The Act also grants tax breaks to renewable power companies when they import power equipment that is not available in Taiwan.
The government should invite academics, experts and organizations to deliberate rates for renewable energy before publicizing the price, the Act stipulates. It also requires the government to promote renewable energy use every other year for two decades once the law takes effect.
The government should adopt renewable power equipment for new government, school or state-run enterprise buildings, it says. Farmers who grow crops that are used to generate renewable energy on fallow farms will also be entitled to government subsidies from the nation’s Agriculture Development Fund, the Act says.
The Act stipulates that the MOEA has the authority to request data from renewable power companies on the operation of renewable energy equipment and to dispatch personnel to inspect the equipment, adding that the companies cannot reject inspections.
Companies may be fined between NT$300,000 (US$9,100) and NT$1.5 million for rejecting inspections and between NT$200,000 and NT$1 million for failing to provide related documents within a specified timeframe.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Pan Meng-an (潘孟安) described the passage of the bill as “a milestone in Taiwan’s economic development.”
“As a member of the internatinal community, Taiwan should carry out its responsibility. Developing green energy is necessary because conventional energy sources will be exhausted in the future,” Pan said.
DPP Legislator Tien Chiu-chin (田秋堇), who had been pushing the bill, said legislators had done something good for future generations.
“We have proven that the economy and environmental protection can coexist,” she said.
Renewable energy development was brought into the spotlight after German wind-power firm InfraVest GmbH — the only private producer of wind energy in Taiwan — threatened in early April to pull out of the country.
The bill had been stalled in the legislature for about nine years. The main reason it was in limbo was that lawmakers representing special interest groups haggled over the purchase prices of specific renewable resources.
Meanwhile, the National Science Council (NSC) yesterday announced that it had budgeted NT$30.3 billion to be spent over the course of five years for a national energy research project, with half the budget to be devoted to studies on solar energy, wind power, bio-energy and 22 other alternative sources of energy.
The budget will be appropriated in four areas: conserving energy and reducing carbon dioxide emissions, developing new energy sources, energy use and development strategies, and personnel training and education, the NSC said.
Approximately NT$11.47 billion will be allocated for conserving energy and reducing emissions. About NT$14.9 billion will be allocated to developing new energy technology.
The NSC has also budgeted NT$1.22 billion for planning energy use and development strategies and NT$2.05 billion for personnel training and education.
NO-LIMITS PARTNERSHIP: ‘The bottom line’ is that if the US were to have a conflict with China or Russia it would likely open up a second front with the other, a US senator said Beijing and Moscow could cooperate in a conflict over Taiwan, the top US intelligence chief told the US Senate this week. “We see China and Russia, for the first time, exercising together in relation to Taiwan and recognizing that this is a place where China definitely wants Russia to be working with them, and we see no reason why they wouldn’t,” US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told a US Senate Committee on Armed Services hearing on Thursday. US Senator Mike Rounds asked Haines about such a potential scenario. He also asked US Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse
INSPIRING: Taiwan has been a model in the Asia-Pacific region with its democratic transition, free and fair elections and open society, the vice president-elect said Taiwan can play a leadership role in the Asia-Pacific region, vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) told a forum in Taipei yesterday, highlighting the nation’s resilience in the face of geopolitical challenges. “Not only can Taiwan help, but Taiwan can lead ... not only can Taiwan play a leadership role, but Taiwan’s leadership is important to the world,” Hsiao told the annual forum hosted by the Center for Asia-Pacific Resilience and Innovation think tank. Hsiao thanked Taiwan’s international friends for their long-term support, citing the example of US President Joe Biden last month signing into law a bill to provide aid to Taiwan,
China’s intrusive and territorial claims in the Indo-Pacific region are “illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive,” new US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo said on Friday, adding that he would continue working with allies and partners to keep the area free and open. Paparo made the remarks at a change-of-command ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, where he took over the command from Admiral John Aquilino. “Our world faces a complex problem set in the troubling actions of the People’s Republic of China [PRC] and its rapid buildup of forces. We must be ready to answer the PRC’s increasingly intrusive and
STATE OF THE NATION: The legislature should invite the president to deliver an address every year, the TPP said, adding that Lai should also have to answer legislators’ questions The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday proposed inviting president-elect William Lai (賴清德) to make a historic first state of the nation address at the legislature following his inauguration on May 20. Lai is expected to face many domestic and international challenges, and should clarify his intended policies with the public’s representatives, KMT caucus secretary-general Hung Meng-kai (洪孟楷) said when making the proposal at a meeting of the legislature’s Procedure Committee. The committee voted to add the item to the agenda for Friday, along with another similar proposal put forward by the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP). The invitation is in line with Article 15-2