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.
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by