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.
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