The liberalization of the energy industry is a likely solution to the nation’s current disputes over nuclear energy, the root cause of which lies in the sector’s monopolization by state-owned Taiwan Power Co (Taipower), academics said yesterday.
The administration of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) is insisting on raising electricity prices and ensuring the commercial operation of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City’s (新北市) Gongliao District (貢寮) “to make up for Taipower’s losses,” National Taipei University economics professor Wang To-far (王塗發) told a seminar.
The seminar, organized by Taiwan Association of University Professors and Taiwan Environmental Protection Union, was held to discuss the liberalization of the energy industry and the use of nuclear energy following the recent release of several white papers by the Executive Yuan.
Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times
Free competition and the separation of electricity producers, distributors and sellers would “naturally rationalize the price of electricity,” Wang said.
Taipower could continue operating the nation’s nuclear power plants and hydropower stations could remain state-owned, but the rest of the market should be opened to private businesses, he said.
Citing the privatization of the nation’s telecommunications market as an example, National Chung Hsin University professor Chen Chi-chung (陳吉仲) endorsed Wang’s proposal, saying that the liberalization of the telecom market contributed to lower prices and an improvement in the protection of consumer rights.
If Taipower was in charge of electricity distribution and power plants were privatized and alternative energy promoted, the market would benefit consumers and energy efficiency would be improved, Chen said.
With regard to the debate about nuclear energy, academics said the government is misleading the public by claiming that power shortages would occur if the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant does not go into operation.
The potential risk of electricity shortages is a “flat-out lie,” Taiwan Thinktank president Wu Rong-i (吳榮義) said, adding that the nation has a reserve energy capacity of more than 10 percent “even if nuclear power was abandoned altogether.”
National Taiwan University atmospheric sciences professor Gloria Hsu(徐光蓉) said past incidents and investigations have shown that nuclear energy is “neither safe, cost-effective nor sustainable.”
“Over the long term, the development of alternative and “green” energy sources is still the best option and the cheapest,” said Chen Yen-hao (陳彥豪), an assistant researcher at Taiwan Institute of Economic Research.
Developing alternative energy sources serves two goals: the ultimate replacement of fossil fuels and the curbing of carbon emissions, he said.
Taipei on Thursday held urban resilience air raid drills, with residents in one of the exercises’ three “key verification zones” reporting little to no difference compared with previous years, despite government pledges of stricter enforcement. Formerly known as the Wanan exercise, the air raid drills, which concluded yesterday, are now part of the “Urban Resilience Exercise,” which also incorporates the Minan disaster prevention and rescue exercise. In Taipei, the designated key verification zones — where the government said more stringent measures would be enforced — were Songshan (松山), Zhongshan (中山) and Zhongzheng (中正) districts. Air raid sirens sounded at 1:30pm, signaling the
The number of people who reported a same-sex spouse on their income tax increased 1.5-fold from 2020 to 2023, while the overall proportion of taxpayers reporting a spouse decreased by 4.4 percent from 2014 to 2023, Ministry of Finance data showed yesterday. The number of people reporting a spouse on their income tax trended upward from 2014 to 2019, the Department of Statistics said. However, the number decreased in 2020 and 2021, likely due to a drop in marriages during the COVID-19 pandemic and the income of some households falling below the taxable threshold, it said. The number of spousal tax filings rebounded
A saleswoman, surnamed Chen (陳), earlier this month was handed an 18-month prison term for embezzling more than 2,000 pairs of shoes while working at a department store in Tainan. The Tainan District Court convicted Chen of embezzlement in a ruling on July 7, sentencing her to prison for illegally profiting NT$7.32 million (US$248,929) at the expense of her employer. Chen was also given the opportunity to reach a financial settlement, but she declined. Chen was responsible for the sales counter of Nike shoes at Tainan’s Shinkong Mitsukoshi Zhongshan branch, where she had been employed since October 2019. She had previously worked
Labor rights groups yesterday called on the Ministry of Labor to protect migrant workers in Taiwan’s fishing industry, days after CNN reported alleged far-ranging abuses in the sector, including deaths and forced work. The ministry must enforce domestic labor protection laws on Taiwan-owned deep-sea fishing vessels, the Coalition for Human Rights for Migrant Fishers told a news conference outside the ministry in Taipei after presenting a petition to officials. CNN on Sunday reported that Taiwanese seafood giant FCF Co, the owners of the US-based Bumble Bee Foods, committed human rights abuses against migrant fishers, citing Indonesian migrant fishers. The alleged abuses included denying