The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday criticized President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) energy inspection tour for not including Pingtung County’s green-energy industry, despite staying the night at the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant in Ma-anshan (馬鞍山), Pingtung County.
DPP Chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) said that Ma should not be touring facilities about which the public are voicing their discontent and asking for the fourth of its kind to be discontinued, but should instead be focusing on the development of green energy.
The way Ma’s inspection tour was designed is very disappointing and shows that Ma’s mindset is “antiquated,” and that he is unwilling to consider replacing nuclear power with green energy, Su said.
Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times
Su complimented Pingtung County Commissioner Tsao Chi-hung’s (曹啟鴻) green-energy policy and said that it was odd for Ma not to visit such a facility.
Under the policy, land flooded by seawater during Typhoon Morakot in 2009 or with very saline soil which makes it unsuitable for agriculture — primarily in Jiadong Township (佳冬), Linbian Township (林邊) and other coastal areas — is used to place solar panels that generate power which is sold to Taiwan Power Co (Taipower).
Approved by the Executive Yuan in 2010, the policy aims to give people whose sole means of income — agriculture — was disrupted by Morakot an alternative income, as well as give land in the area time to recover from salinization and subsidence.
Morakot, which battered southern Taiwan from Aug. 7 until Aug. 10, 2009, caused the most devastating flooding since 1959, as well as multiple landslides. The typhoon killed 677 people and 22 people went missing and were never found.
Su also criticized Ma for excluding Tsao from the group that went on the energy tour, saying that Tsao should have been kept in the loop because as county commissioner, he would be tasked with disaster relief if a nuclear disaster occurred.
Instead of announcing that he would stay overnight at the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant — which sounds like he was on a casual trip — Ma should instead tell people how they are to evacuate if anything happens to the nuclear power plant, Su said.
Su said that Provincial Highway No. 27 often experiences heavy traffic and Ma should tell the public what the government’s contingency plans are to help people evacuate the area without getting stuck in a traffic jam.
Su also touched on environmental protection issues involving nuclear power plants, specifically referring to coral bleaching, which is caused by hot water pumped from nuclear power plants heating up the seawater in which coral grows.
Ma should tell the public how hot the water pumped out of the plants is and what the maximum heat is that coral can handle before bleaching occurs, Su said.
Meanwhile, when asked about the passage of an amendment to Article 99, Section 1 of the Accounting Act (會計法) on Friday — allegedly to allow former independent legislator Yen Ching-piao (顏清標) to have his sentence reduced — Su said he respected the Legislative Yuan and its way of operation.
Yen was sentenced on Nov. 28 last year to three-and-a-half years in prison for misuse of public funds — spending council money at hostess bars and KTV lounges — during his term as Taichung County Council speaker, but he may be released from jail under the amendment.
National Taiwan University Hospital physician Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), who is under investigation for allegedly misusing receipts to claim reimbursements from the National Science Council, and several hundred other college professors facing similar allegations, would also be cleared under the amendment.
When asked whether Ko would be nominated to represent the DPP and campaign for Taipei City mayor, Su said that the party would follow its own system for candidate nominations.
US climber Alex Honnold is to attempt to scale Taipei 101 without a rope and harness in a live Netflix special on Jan. 24, the streaming platform announced on Wednesday. Accounting for the time difference, the two-hour broadcast of Honnold’s climb, called Skyscraper Live, is to air on Jan. 23 in the US, Netflix said in a statement. Honnold, 40, was the first person ever to free solo climb the 900m El Capitan rock formation in Yosemite National Park — a feat that was recorded and later made into the 2018 documentary film Free Solo. Netflix previewed Skyscraper Live in October, after videos
NUMBERS IMBALANCE: More than 4 million Taiwanese have visited China this year, while only about half a million Chinese have visited here Beijing has yet to respond to Taiwan’s requests for negotiation over matters related to the recovery of cross-strait tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. Taiwan’s tourism authority issued the statement after Chinese-language daily the China Times reported yesterday that the government’s policy of banning group tours to China does not stop Taiwanese from visiting the country. As of October, more than 4.2 million had traveled to China this year, exceeding last year. Beijing estimated the number of Taiwanese tourists in China could reach 4.5 million this year. By contrast, only 500,000 Chinese tourists are expected in Taiwan, the report said. The report
Temperatures are forecast to drop steadily as a continental cold air mass moves across Taiwan, with some areas also likely to see heavy rainfall, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. From today through early tomorrow, a cold air mass would keep temperatures low across central and northern Taiwan, and the eastern half of Taiwan proper, with isolated brief showers forecast along Keelung’s north coast, Taipei and New Taipei City’s mountainous areas and eastern Taiwan, it said. Lows of 11°C to 15°C are forecast in central and northern Taiwan, Yilan County, and the outlying Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties, and 14°C to 17°C
STEERING FAILURE: The first boat of its class is experiencing teething issues as it readies for acceptance by the navy, according to a recent story about rudder failure The Hai Kun (海鯤), the nation’s first locally built submarine, allegedly suffered a total failure of stern hydraulic systems during the second round of sea acceptance trials on June 26, and sailors were forced to manually operate the X-rudder to turn the submarine and return to port, news Web site Mirror Daily reported yesterday. The report said that tugboats following the Hai Kun assisted the submarine in avoiding collisions with other ships due to the X-rudder malfunctioning. At the time of the report, the submarine had completed its trials and was scheduled to begin diving and surfacing tests in shallow areas. The X-rudder,
RSS