Environmental groups yesterday called on Vice Minister of Economic Affairs Woody Duh (杜紫軍) to place emphasis on the popular demand that the future of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City’s Gongliao District (貢寮) be decided by a plebiscite.
The groups also urged him to push for renewable energy developments, and — as the nation’s top official in charge of the industrial sector — shoulder the responsibility of managing and supervising the petrochemical industry.
Duh was named minister of economic affairs by Premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) on Sunday, after Jiang accepted Minister of Economic Affairs Chang Chia-juch’s (張家祝) resignation. He is to take office on Friday.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
Taiwan Environmental Protection Union member Kao Cheng-yen (高成炎) told a press conference in Taipei yesterday that he was shocked at Duh’s remarks during a hearing held on Thursday last week in response to a petition demanding a plebiscite on the nuclear plant, which collected 120,000 signatures.
Quoting Duh’s response to the plebiscite’s question, which asked whether voters agree with a trial run of the nuclear plant involving fuel rods, Kao accused Duh of “playing a word game” by claiming that a trial run and fuel rods are two separate things, as fuel rod insertion is necessary in the procedure of a trial run.
Referring to Duh’s tenure as the Ministry of Economic Affairs Department of Information Technology deputy director-general, when Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) chairman Hwang Jung-Chiou (黃重球) was the departmental head, he said Duh should not side with his “former boss” by blocking the referendum. Rather, Duh should respect Premier Jiang Yi-huah’s (江宜樺) order in April that a referendum be held, Kao said.
Taiwan Renewable Energy Alliance convener Kao Ju-ping (高如萍) said that Duh should push for renewable energy development, since the nation has abundant resources for generating wind and solar energy.
She said that Taiwan is better positioned than Germany, the global leader in green energy, to develop the two energy sources.
She said that German-made wind turbines, which on average generate about 1 kilowatt-hour (kWh) of electricity in Germany, can generate up to 3kWh in Taiwan’s Changhua Coastal Industrial Park.
She said that developing alternative sources of energy would also help create domestic jobs.
As the ministry is the governing authority of the petrochemical industry, Taiwan Watch Institute secretary-general Herlin Hsieh (謝和霖) called on Duh to streamline cooperation between central and local governments in the management of fuel and gas pipelines.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods