Review of a draft act promoting a nuclear-free homeland (非核家園推動法) was idled again as legislators clashed over the deliberation procedure yesterday, with Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers saying that they should wait for the Cabinet’s proposal bill and review them at the same time.
Just as the meeting began at the legislature’s Education and Culture Committee, KMT Legislator Chen Shu-hui (陳淑慧) took the podium and proposed canceling the meeting, triggering criticism from the committee meeting convener, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Cheng Li-chiun (鄭麗君).
Their exchange was followed by a heated quarrel between several legislators, while DPP legislators held up paper signs that read: “The KMT is blocking the draft act promoting a nuclear-free homeland,” and KMT legislators said that they were not obstructing the review.
“A nuclear-free homeland is a goal we all share, but the difference is that one side [the DPP] wants to achieve it immediately, and the other [the KMT] wants to achieve it gradually,” KMT caucus whip Ling Hung-chih (林鴻池) said, adding that the draft act proposed by the DPP was good, but his party wanted to wait for the Cabinet’s proposal for comparison and review them at the same time.
DPP Legislator Lin Shu-fen (林淑芬) said the KMT was being deceptive by “pretending to be against nuclear power when it actually supports it” and “hampering the bill, but saying it wants to continue reviewing it.”
DPP caucus convener Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) said that during the last session, the KMT promised to allow the bill to be reviewed in this session, but was now hampering the process, and that the Cabinet’s proposal on energy safety and promoting a nuclear-free homeland (能源安全及非核家園推動法草案) was actually about energy safety management, and should be proposed at the Economics Committee for separate review.
“Even if the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant goes into operation, it will provide only 6 percent of Taiwan’s total electricity supply, and I don’t believe that Taiwan has had no other way to solve this small problem for the past decades,” Ker said, adding that was unreasonable how the KMT defends nuclear power and has wasted so much social resources on the issue for all these years.
Ker suggested that KMT legislators persuade the government to give up the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant.
The meeting ended with the separate views on the issue going into negotiations between the ruling and opposition parties.
AGING: While Japan has 22 submarines, Taiwan only operates four, two of which were commissioned by the US in 1945 and 1946, and transferred to Taiwan in 1973 Taiwan would need at least 12 submarines to reach modern fleet capabilities, CSBC Corp, Taiwan chairman Chen Cheng-hung (陳政宏) said in an interview broadcast on Friday, citing a US assessment. CSBC is testing the nation’s first indigenous defense submarine, the Hai Kun (海鯤, Narwhal), which is scheduled to be delivered to the navy next month or in July. The Hai Kun has completed torpedo-firing tests and is scheduled to undergo overnight sea trials, Chen said on an SET TV military affairs program. Taiwan would require at least 12 submarines to establish a modern submarine force after assessing the nation’s operational environment and defense
A white king snake that frightened passengers and caused a stir on a Taipei MRT train on Friday evening has been claimed by its owner, who would be fined, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. A person on Threads posted that he thought he was lucky to find an empty row of seats on Friday after boarding a train on the Bannan (Blue) Line, only to spot a white snake with black stripes after sitting down. Startled, he jumped up, he wrote, describing the encounter as “terrifying.” “Taipei’s rat control plan: Release snakes on the metro,” one person wrote in reply, referring
The coast guard today said that it had disrupted "illegal" operations by a Chinese research ship in waters close to the nation and driven it away, part of what Taipei sees a provocative pattern of China's stepped up maritime activities. The coast guard said that it on Thursday last week detected the Chinese ship Tongji (同濟號), which was commissioned only last year, 29 nautical miles (54km) southeast of the southern tip of Taiwan, although just outside restricted waters. The ship was observed lowering ropes into the water, suspected to be the deployment of scientific instruments for "illegal" survey operations, and the coast
An inauguration ceremony was held yesterday for the Danjiang Bridge, the world’s longest single-mast asymmetric cable-stayed bridge, ahead of its official opening to traffic on Tuesday, marking a major milestone after nearly three decades of planning and construction. At the ceremony in New Taipei City attended by President William Lai (賴清德), Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰), Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱) and New Taipei City Mayor Hou Yu-ih (侯友宜), the bridge was hailed as both an engineering landmark and a long-awaited regional transport link connecting Tamsui (淡水) and Bali (八里)
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