Dozens of environmental groups staged a protest in front of the Taipei International Convention Center (TICC) before the two-day National Energy Conference (NEC) commenced yesterday, urging the government to consider developing renewable energy instead of relying on coal or nuclear power plants.
The groups also demanded the government carry out conclusions reached at the conference, instead of letting them sit until the next meeting.
“We call on the government to focus on discussing responsible energy and policies to tackle climate change,” Taiwan Environmental Protection Union (TEPU) deputy secretary-general Lee Cho-han (李卓翰) said.
Lee said that although yesterday marked the third time the nation has held an energy conference at the national level, “the officials like to hold meetings, but little is done afterwards.”
“We do not want to see ‘low carbon’ become a mere slogan again,” Homemaker Union and Foundation (HUF) chairwoman Yen Mei-chuan (顏美娟) said.
The nation’s energy policies should include developing sustainable and clean alternative energies, such as solar, wind and tidal power, former HUF chairwoman Chen Man-li (陳曼麗) said.
“Taiwan generates only 1 percent of its energy from resources originating from the island [like solar]. In other words, 99 percent of our energy is imported [generated from oil and coal],” she said.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Wang To-far (王塗發) agreed, saying that besides potential safety problems, “Taiwan is entirely capable in the technical sense of developing alternative energies like solar power, but the government's emphasis on nuclear power development will suppress these developments.”
Green Consumers' Foundation chairman Jay Fang (方儉) also joined the rally, holding an oversized poster of a cartoon featuring a nuclear plant as a giant monster crushing a wind turbine into pieces, while holding the hand and leading a blindfolded President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九).
A group of residents living near the construction site of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in Taipei County chanted slogans such as “Nuke Four (核四) is unsafe, do not let this piece of junk operate” and “Nuke Four, give me back my illegally expropriated land.”
Besides developing cleaner energies, power conservation and green policies are also key to solving global warming, Green Party Taiwan (GPT) secretary-general Pan Han-shen (潘翰聲) said.
“Taipower last year introduced a market mechanism where domestic users who reduce their electricity usage get a discount on their bills; the company said that together the savings in power last year amounted to the equivalent of planting 1 million trees,” Pan said.
“We all know that these ‘million trees’ did not come from building a new power plant, but has to do with conservation,” he said.
Pan said that on Earth Day last year, Ma promised to impose carbon taxes and lower income taxes.
“Let's remind him of this ... It would be a real waste for the government not to introduce a similar market mechanism after this conference,” he said.
Taiwan is to receive the first batch of Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 jets from the US late this month, a defense official said yesterday, after a year-long delay due to a logjam in US arms deliveries. Completing the NT$247.2 billion (US$7.69 billion) arms deal for 66 jets would make Taiwan the third nation in the world to receive factory-fresh advanced fighter jets of the same make and model, following Bahrain and Slovakia, the official said on condition of anonymity. F-16 Block 70/72 are newly manufactured F-16 jets built by Lockheed Martin to the standards of the F-16V upgrade package. Republic of China
Taiwan-Japan Travel Passes are available for use on public transit networks in the two countries, Taoyuan Metro Corp said yesterday, adding that discounts of up to 7 percent are available. Taoyuan Metro, the Taipei MRT and Japan’s Keisei Electric Railway teamed up to develop the pass. Taoyuan Metro operates the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport MRT Line, while Keisei Electric Railway offers express services between Tokyo’s Narita Airport, and the Keisei Ueno and Nippori stations in the Japanese capital, as well as between Narita and Haneda airports. The basic package comprises one one-way ticket on the Taoyuan MRT Line and one Skyliner ticket on
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
COLD FACTS: ‘Snow skin’ mooncakes, made with a glutinous rice skin and kept at a low temperature, have relatively few calories compared with other mooncakes Traditional mooncakes are a typical treat for many Taiwanese in the lead-up to the Mid-Autumn Festival, but a Taipei-based dietitian has urged people not to eat more than one per day and not to have them every day due to their high fat and calorie content. As mooncakes contain a lot of oil and sugar, they can have negative health effects on older people and those with diabetes, said Lai Yu-han (賴俞含), a dietitian at Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. “The maximum you can have is one mooncake a day, and do not eat them every day,” Lai
RSS