Review of a draft act promoting a nuclear-free homeland (非核家園推動法) was idled again as legislators clashed over the deliberation procedure yesterday, with Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers saying that they should wait for the Cabinet’s proposal bill and review them at the same time.
Just as the meeting began at the legislature’s Education and Culture Committee, KMT Legislator Chen Shu-hui (陳淑慧) took the podium and proposed canceling the meeting, triggering criticism from the committee meeting convener, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Cheng Li-chiun (鄭麗君).
Their exchange was followed by a heated quarrel between several legislators, while DPP legislators held up paper signs that read: “The KMT is blocking the draft act promoting a nuclear-free homeland,” and KMT legislators said that they were not obstructing the review.
“A nuclear-free homeland is a goal we all share, but the difference is that one side [the DPP] wants to achieve it immediately, and the other [the KMT] wants to achieve it gradually,” KMT caucus whip Ling Hung-chih (林鴻池) said, adding that the draft act proposed by the DPP was good, but his party wanted to wait for the Cabinet’s proposal for comparison and review them at the same time.
DPP Legislator Lin Shu-fen (林淑芬) said the KMT was being deceptive by “pretending to be against nuclear power when it actually supports it” and “hampering the bill, but saying it wants to continue reviewing it.”
DPP caucus convener Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) said that during the last session, the KMT promised to allow the bill to be reviewed in this session, but was now hampering the process, and that the Cabinet’s proposal on energy safety and promoting a nuclear-free homeland (能源安全及非核家園推動法草案) was actually about energy safety management, and should be proposed at the Economics Committee for separate review.
“Even if the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant goes into operation, it will provide only 6 percent of Taiwan’s total electricity supply, and I don’t believe that Taiwan has had no other way to solve this small problem for the past decades,” Ker said, adding that was unreasonable how the KMT defends nuclear power and has wasted so much social resources on the issue for all these years.
Ker suggested that KMT legislators persuade the government to give up the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant.
The meeting ended with the separate views on the issue going into negotiations between the ruling and opposition parties.
A study published by online booking platform Expedia revealed searches for travel to Taipei have ballooned 2,786 percent following the lifting of COVID-19 pandemic travel restrictions due to the city being a “designation dupe” for Seoul. The TikTok trend for duping — referring to substituting a designation for a more inexpensive alternative — helped propel interest in Taipei, it said in a consumer survey titled “Unpack ‘24,” which was conducted from September to October in 14 countries. Location dupes are “every bit as delightful as the tried-and-true places travelers love,” Expedia trend tracker Melanie Fish said of the year’s popular alternatives, which
A small-scale protest that called on the government to cancel its plan to welcome Indian migrant workers in a bid to tackle Taiwan’s labor shortage was held in Taipei yesterday. During the protest, comprised of a few dozen people staged in front of the Presidential Office on Ketagalan Boulevard, the protest’s chief initiator, a woman identified only as “Yuna” said they wanted the central government to reconsider allowing migrant workers from India to enter Taiwan. Most people in Taiwan had little knowledge about the potential plan to allow in Indian migrant workers until a report in the media last month, she
NO RELIGIOUS VISIT: The interior minister said visas were not issued for 218 applicants for a tour of Taiwan organized by a temple due to their own non-response Chinese who had sought to enter Taiwan for a religious event were not granted visas because they were not “religious personnel” and planned to visit places not listed on their group tour’s itinerary, then never supplied supplemental information upon request, the Ministry of the Interior and the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday. Visas were not issued for 218 of the 239 applicants, as they did not provide additional information or explanations as requested, Minister of the Interior Lin Yu-chang (林右昌) told a committee at the legislature in Taipei. Multiple groups, including the Taiwan Matsu Fellowship, had signed a petition that sought
A military procurement announcement released on Friday shows the purchase of “air/surface” weapons bound for Taitung, likely for the newly purchased Block 70 F-16V jets still awaiting delivery. The announcement shows a NT$17.22 billion (US$548.91 million) purchase agreement signed on Nov. 13 for “aircraft air/surface weapons,” to be delivered to the air force's Seventh Tactical Flight Wing stationed at the Taitung Air Force Base. The sale is scheduled to take place over nine years, with delivery completed by Nov. 30, 2032. Considering the recipient, analysts believe they are likely air-to-air or air-to-surface missiles for the military’s 66 upgraded Block 70 F-16V jets awaiting
RSS