The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislative caucus yesterday criticized the Cabinet’s Forward-Looking Infrastructure Development Program for the development of renewable energy sources as ill-advised and an attempt by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) to seek re-election.
The lawmakers said the eight-year, NT$880 billion (US$28.71 million) Forward-Looking program — which the government says aims to develop renewable energy sources, railway transportation, digital and water infrastructures and to minimize developmental gaps between urban and rural areas — is just an effort to funnel money toward DPP-governed municipalities, not efficient budgeting.
The government — on top of an annual NT$25.6 billion budget — has planned a special NT$24.32 billion budget, NT$16.2 billion of which is to be used to construct a “green” energy park in the Shalun area (沙崙) of Tainan’s Gueiren District (歸仁) to serve as a testing ground for renewable energy technologies.
Photo: Lin Cheng-kung, Taipei Times
The park should be built in Yunlin County, the nation’s largest producer of solar energy, instead of DPP-governed Tainan, KMT Legislator Chang Li-shan (張麗善) said.
“The park should be built in the right location if it is to deal with power shortages and the shortfall of renewable energy infrastructure. No wonder the budget has been criticized as pork-barrel spending to favor certain constituencies,” Chang said.
Questioning the government’s pledge to phase out nuclear energy and increase the nation’s renewable energy capacity to 20 percent of the total power supply by 2025, she said Taiwan only has 5,300 hectares on which solar farms could be built, making the pledge either an unfulfillable promise or one that would lead to a mass conversion of farmlands, which would further hurt the nation’s alarmingly low food self-sufficiency rate.
Electricity rates might increase with the development of renewable energy sources, as an estimated NT$1.75 trillion from the public and private sectors is to be invested in the industry from this year through 2024, but the government has not warned the public about possible rate hikes, Chang said.
“Although solar energy is renewable, solar-panel manufacturing generates a large amount of liquid pollutants, while disused solar panels and batteries are also a problem. The government should explain its pollution prevention measures and recycling plans,” the lawmaker said.
KMT Legislator Yosi Takun (孔文吉) said that some local government officials were not allowed to attend a hearing at the Legislative Yuan yesterday on the Forward-Looking program, including New Taipei City Economic Development Department Director Shi Wei-chuan (施威全).
However, Shi was later admitted to the hearing, the first of six planned hearings.
“For many KMT-governed municipalities that are excluded from the Forward-Looking program, a hearing is the only occasion where they might seek inclusion, but they are prevented from attending,” Yosi Takun said.
“The NT$880 billion was hastily approved — without any cost-effectiveness analysis — and the DPP is unwilling to listen to local governments’ opinions. What kind of a ruling party does that?” KMT Legislator William Tseng (曾銘宗) said.
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