Three referendums challenging the government’s energy policies passed on Saturday, even in some areas where nuclear power plants are located.
Of the 10 referendums held on Saturday, referendum #7, initiated by former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator Lu Shiow-yen (盧秀燕), now Taichung mayor-elect, asked: “Do you agree that the share of thermal power in the annual energy structure should be reduced by at least 1 percent per year on average?’”
At least one-quarter of the eligible voters — or 4,939,267 —needed to vote on a referendum, with the “yes” votes outnumbering the “nos,” for it to be passed.
Photo: Yu Chao-fu, Taipei Times
With 7,955,753 votes in favor of referendum #7 and 2,109,157 votes against it, it scored the highest number of “yes” votes of the 10 referendums, Central Election Commission (CEC) data as of 4:13am yesterday showed.
Referendum #8, initiated by KMT Legislator Lin Te-fu (林德福), which asked: “Do you agree with the following energy policy: ‘The construction or expansion of any coal-fired power plants or generating facilities [inclusive of the expansion of the Shendo Power Plant] should be halted?’” also passed, by 7,599,267 votes for and 2,346,316 against.
Referendum #16, initiated by Nuclear Myth Busters founder Huang Shih-hsiu (黃士修), was the only one to seek a repeal of a legal article, and therefore the only one legally binding on the government.
The proposal asked: “Do you agree that subparagraph 1, Article 95 of the Electricity Act (電業法), which reads: ‘Nuclear-energy-based power-generating facilities shall wholly stop running by 2025,’ should be abolished?”
It passed by 5,895,560 votes to 4,014,215, which means that the article would cease to be law three days after the CEC announces the official referendum result.
The outcome showed that a “nuclear-free homeland was never a public consensus,” Huang said at about midnight on Saturday as he celebrated the victory in live-streamed footage alongside referendum advocate Liao Yen-peng (廖彥朋), before the final results were confirmed.
The government should extend the decommissioning schedules of the three operational nuclear power plants and resume the construction of the mothballed Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City’s Gongliao District (貢寮), he said.
Despite some people’s claim that Gongliao residents are opposed to nuclear facilities, the result showed that there is basically a tie in the district, with 2,384 votes against the proposal and 2,347 for it, Liao said, citing CEC data.
Votes in favor of the referendum outnumbered those against it in the districts in New Taipei City and Pingtung County where operational power plants are located, while on Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼), where nearly 100,000 barrels of low-level radioactive waste are stored, there were 817 votes against the proposal and 634 votes in favor of it, CEC data showed.
Huang said his supporters have begun collecting signatures for two new referendum proposals, one seeking to start the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant and the other to remove Orchid Island’s nuclear waste depository, with the first hopefully held alongside the 2020 presidential election.
The National Anti-Nuclear Action Platform said that people who cast “yes” votes on the pro-nuclear referendum lacked confidence in the government’s energy policies.
The pro-nuclear camp had spread a lot of disinformation about the referendum, but its members would redouble their efforts to stop the development of nuclear energy, it added.
The government’s goal to phase out nuclear energy facilities by 2025 has not changed, as it needs four to five years to assess whether to extend operations of the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant in Pingtung County, but the deadline for proposing an extension plan is next year, Executive Yuan spokeswoman Kolas Yotaka said.
The deadlines for extending the Jinshan and Guosheng plants in New Taipei City have passed, the Atomic Energy Council has previously said.
Premier William Lai (賴清德) last month canceled the Shenao construction project, which corresponds with the call for no more coal-fired power plants, while the Executive Yuan would ask the Ministry of Economic Affairs to reduce 1 percent of thermal power generation every year under the principle that the power supply is stable, Kolas said.
Additional reporting by Lee Hsin-fang
RISK FACTORS: ‘We hope people can cooperate and endure it ... it is possibly the very important last mile,’ Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung said Taiwan’s COVID-19 restrictions and mask regulations are to remain the same next month, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said yesterday. The center reported 42,112 new local COVID-19 cases and 85 deaths, saying that the number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients has dropped to a new low this month. Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the CECC, said that the center is keeping COVID-19 restrictions and mask regulations the same due to the local virus situation, and an increase in the number of imported cases of the new Omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5 of SARS-CoV-2, among other risk factors. Easing
TRAVEL CONFERENCE: Representatives from the two countries exchanged views on how to increase tourist numbers, with one identifying individual travel as a trend Taiwan and South Korea aim to increase the number of tourists traveling between the two countries to 3 million, government and tourism industry representatives said at a conference in Hsinchu City yesterday. The annual event was attended by Deputy Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Yen-po (陳彥伯); Tourism Bureau Director-General Chang Shi-chung (張錫聰); Taiwan Visitors Association chairwoman Yeh Chu-lan (葉菊蘭); South Korean Representative to Taiwan Chung Byung-won; Yoon Ji-sook, an official at the South Korean Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism; and Korea Association of Travel Agents chairman Oh Chang-hee. Global tourism is expected to soon rebound to between 55 and
DAMAGE CONTROL: The KMT in a statement called the Taiwan Strait ‘international waters,’ after Alexander Huang said China had the right to claim it as internal waters Lawmakers and experts yesterday accused the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) envoy to the US Alexander Huang (黃介正) of acting as China’s stooge, after he said that Beijing has the right to claim waters beyond its maritime territory as its exclusive economic zone and that the US has no legal basis to assert that the Taiwan Strait is an “international waterway.” Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Wang Ting-yu (王定宇) said in an online post that most of the world considers the Strait an international waterway, adding that this is important for safeguarding Taiwan. “We have seen US warships transiting through the Taiwan Strait.
The Taichung District Court yesterday sentenced to nine years in prison an unlicensed judo coach who caused the death of a seven-year-old student after slamming him onto the ground more than a dozen times. In its decision against the coach, a man surnamed Ho (何), the court cited his lack of remorse for using excessive force against an inadequately trained child and his failure to reconcile with the parents for his role in their son’s death. Speaking on behalf of the boy’s mother, Taichung City Councilor Jacky Chen (陳清龍) said the family would appeal to a higher court. Prosecutors said that Ho on
RSS