The Cabinet and the DPP yesterday decided to launch a comprehensive campaign against the construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant (
The Cabinet will concentrate on convincing legislators of the wisdom of axing the budget for the project.
Premier Chang Chun-hsiung (
"The legislature has passed a total of 22 budget bills between 1991 and 2000 and the Cabinet has not completely executed all of those bills," Chang said.
"The Cabinet has the administrative right (
Chang made his comments after attending the DPP's Forum for Party and Political Negotiation (
Chang refused to give in to demands from opposition parties on Tuesday for a decision on the plant by Nov. 3, saying only that the Cabinet would make a final decision on the project and an announcement as soon as possible.
At the weekly Cabinet meeting yesterday, Chang said the Cabinet would act in unison with the DPP's legislative caucus and would make no concession to opposition demands as long as the legislative caucus saw fit not to do so.
"The Cabinet will act in accordance with the DPP's legislative caucus. As long as the caucus refuses to accept the opposition lawmakers' conditions, the Cabinet will not give in, either," government spokesman Su Tzen-ping (蘇正平) said at the press conference after the Cabinet meeting.
DPP Secretary-General Wu Nai-jen (
"I think the Cabinet would make the final decision at the end of November. However, it is up to the Presidential Office and the Cabinet to decide when to make the announcement," Wu told reporters after a meeting of the party's Central Standing Committee yesterday.
DPP Chairman Frank Hsieh (
"The controversy over the project has to be settled as soon as possible," Hsieh said.
At yesterday's standing committee meeting, the party also passed a resolution to initiate a series of lobbying programs for scrapping the plant. The programs include a series of TV ads, to begin next month, to warn the public of the dangers surrounding nuclear powered electricity generation as well as preparing information pamphlets to promote the party's anti-nuclear stance and soliciting the support of environmental and social groups.
"We will make clear that our anti-nuclear stance is based on the party's emphasis on sustainable environmental development and that alternative power generation projects are feasible so there will not be any lack of electricity if the plant is canceled," Hsieh said at a press conference after meeting.
"As far as waste sites are concerned, Taiwan is incapable of handling nuclear waste," he said.
Yet not all the DPP is in lockstep over the power plant. The Mainstream Alliance (
The alliance's spokesperson, Legislator Shen Fu-hsiung (沈富雄) said: "There are many ways to solve the problem. Holding a plebiscite or continuing the fourth plant and shutting down the first and second plants are both possible solutions."
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