As part of ongoing opposition to the government’s nuclear policy Former vice president Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) yesterday launched a petition in Taipei for a nuclear referendum to decide whether fuel rods should be inserted into the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City’s (新北市) Gongliao District (貢寮).
Lu, joined by several Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Taipei City councilors, said the Taipei City Council passed a regulation on civil referendums in Taipei, and she expected to collect 15,000 signatures in the city for her proposed referendum to be approved.
A similar referendum she proposed in New Taipei City was rejected by the Executive Yuan’s Referendum Review Committee last month, which said the issue “concerns energy policy affecting the nation’s electricity supply, power reserves, industrial sectors, environment and other important matters” and is “an important national policy matter not suitable for a local referendum.”
Photo: Wang Min-wei, Taipei Times
She slammed the Executive Yuan yesterday over the rejection, and said she will file an administrative lawsuit against the committee or request a constitutional interpretation.
In launching the petition for a proposed nuclear referendum in Taipei City, the former vice president said that residents living within the evacuation zone of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant, including Taipei, New Taipei City, Keelung City and Yilan County, should have the right to determine whether they want to face threats of a possible failure at the plant.
“President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) failed to mention the nuclear waste issue during his nuclear trip and he did not talk about the fact that Taiwan is in a seismic zone. His remarks are meant to mislead the public,” she said at the Taipei City Council.
She said the Ma administration should stop attempting to coerce the public into approving construction of the Fourth nuclear Power Plant, and urged the government to speed up the development of solar power and other alternative energy sources.
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
Starting on Jan. 1, YouBike riders must have insurance to use the service, and a six-month trial of NT$5 coupons under certain conditions would be implemented to balance bike shortages, a joint statement from transportation departments across Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan announced yesterday. The rental bike system operator said that coupons would be offered to riders to rent bikes from full stations, for riders who take out an electric-assisted bike from a full station, and for riders who return a bike to an empty station. All riders with YouBike accounts are automatically eligible for the program, and each membership account
A classified Pentagon-produced, multiyear assessment — the Overmatch brief — highlighted unreported Chinese capabilities to destroy US military assets and identified US supply chain choke points, painting a disturbing picture of waning US military might, a New York Times editorial published on Monday said. US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s comments in November last year that “we lose every time” in Pentagon-conducted war games pitting the US against China further highlighted the uncertainty about the US’ capability to intervene in the event of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. “It shows the Pentagon’s overreliance on expensive, vulnerable weapons as adversaries field cheap, technologically
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
RSS