The Taipei City Government will keep the air-conditioning on in its offices between 1pm and 3pm for the next two weeks, despite an Executive Yuan order for government facilities to turn it off during those times, Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) said yesterday.
The Cabinet on Monday said the government would take the lead in saving energy by turning off air-conditioning for two hours a day while Ho-Ping Power Co (和平電力) repairs an electrical transmission tower in Yilan County downed by strong winds brought by Typhoon Nesat over the weekend.
The loss of the tower reduced the nation’s power supply by 1.3 million kilowatts (kW).
Photo: Peter Lo, Taipei Times
Ko was asked about the Cabinet order after he attended a news conference on Taipei’s cityscape improvement efforts.
“Where can civil servants find relief if air conditioners are turned off between 1pm and 3pm?” Ko said.
“Orders should be reasonable, but that is a very extraordinary order, and extraordinary orders should only be given in a state of emergency,” the mayor said. “If we often give extraordinary orders in normal times, then people will not cooperate with such orders during a state of emergency.”
Asked if the nation’s current electrical supply situation could be considered a state of emergency, Ko said: “We will keep air-conditioning temperatures at 28 degrees Celsius, a little high, but it will still be turned on.”
In other news, Minister of Transportation and Communications Hochen Tan (賀陳旦) on Monday invited Ko to an exchange of ideas after Ko criticized the Ministry of Transportation and Communications plans to establish a joint disaster prevention center at Taipei Railway Station and a proposal for a light rail system between Keelung and Taipei.
Ko yesterday said the ministry and the city have agreed to establish a temporary disaster prevention center at Taipei Railway Station during the Taipei Universiade this month and the temporary center would operate until the official center is established.
That is expected to be in March 2019.
The ministry is to hold a meeting this month on the light rail project, he said, adding that he suggested it finish its feasibility evaluations first. The meeting would decide on the project’s terminal station and route, and budgets for the system would be allocated later, he said.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique