Environmental activists yesterday criticized the Ministry of Economic Affairs’ (MOEA) energy development guidelines, saying the ministry had made no significant progress in developing renewable energy.
Hong Shen-han (洪申翰), a representative of the Green Citizens Actions Alliance, said the guidelines set the direction of the nation’s energy development over the next 10 years.
However, the guidelines only offered two options, Hung said. One is to shut down both the First and Second Nuclear Power Plants, but greatly increase the fossil fuel power stations. The other is to continue to keep the two nuclear power plants operating and build a few more fossil fuel power stations. Both options see renewable energy has providing less than 10 percent of the total electricity production, he said.
“Should the nation choose -either one of the options, greenhouse gas emissions volume in 2020 would still be higher than that of 2005 by 80 million tonnes,” Hung said. “The government has set the goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions to the level of 2005, which was about 252 million tonnes.”
Many developed countries have raised the percentage of renewable energy in their electrical grids, with some even reaching about 60 percent, Hung said.
However, the ministry’s guidelines only proposed an increase from 3.5 percent to 6 percent, he said.
The guidelines also failed to clearly address such issues as fair use of the energy and lowering energy demand.
Lowering the energy demand would make new power generators unnecessary, he said.
Lee and about a dozen activists held a press conference at the front of the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) yesterday morning, about 30 minutes before the public hearing on the proposed guidelines began.
Environmental Protection Administration Deputy Minister Chiu Wen-yen (邱文彥), who presided over the public hearing, ruled that the ministry should provide more background information, as environmentalists and academics have requested, and resubmit the proposals to the EPA.
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