The government would factor in the public’s opinions when considering increases in the price of oil and the floating oil price mechanism that has been used to set the price on the first day of each month, a senior official with the Cabinet said yesterday.
“How people feel about rising oil prices is definitely a concern the agency in charge of [deciding the price] will take into account, as ‘listening to the voice of the public before finalizing policies’ is one of the administration’s guidelines,” said the official, who wished to remain anonymous.
The official was referring to an announcement made by Premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄) in which, while giving general comments on a two-day Cabinet workshop that ended on Friday, Liu said the government would take public opinion into consideration.
The official made the remarks in response to a report in yesterday’s United Daily Evening News that said Executive Yuan Secretary-General Hsueh Hsiang-chuan (薛香川) recently met a political commentator and frequent talk show guest Yang Hsien-hung (楊憲宏) to discuss the oil price issue.
The report said Hsueh agreed with Yang that oil prices should not only be set to reflect the cost of purchase, because the issue was also political.
Saying that Hsueh’s meeting with the talk show guest was not only about oil prices but also other topics, the official added that Cabinet officials often met media personnel and people from all walks of life.
The floating oil price mechanism, reinstated by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) administration in late May after being frozen for six months by the former ruling Democratic Progressive Party, links domestic fuel prices to benchmark prices of West Texas Intermediate crude in New York.
The Taipei City Government yesterday said contractors organizing its New Year’s Eve celebrations would be held responsible after a jumbo screen played a Beijing-ran television channel near the event’s end. An image showing China Central Television (CCTV) Channel 3 being displayed was posted on the social media platform Threads, sparking an outcry on the Internet over Beijing’s alleged political infiltration of the municipal government. A Taipei Department of Information and Tourism spokesman said event workers had made a “grave mistake” and that the Television Broadcasts Satellite (TVBS) group had the contract to operate the screens. The city would apply contractual penalties on TVBS
The lowest temperature in a low-lying area recorded early yesterday morning was in Miaoli County’s Gongguan Township (公館), at 6.8°C, due to a strong cold air mass and the effect of radiative cooling, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. In other areas, Chiayi’s East District (東區) recorded a low of 8.2°C and Yunlin County’s Huwei Township (虎尾) recorded 8.5°C, CWA data showed. The cold air mass was at its strongest from Saturday night to the early hours of yesterday. It brought temperatures down to 9°C to 11°C in areas across the nation and the outlying Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties,
A new board game set against the backdrop of armed conflict around Taiwan is to be released next month, amid renewed threats from Beijing, inviting players to participate in an imaginary Chinese invasion 20 years from now. China has ramped up military activity close to Taiwan in the past few years, including massing naval forces around the nation. The game, titled 2045, tasks players with navigating the troubles of war using colorful action cards and role-playing as characters involved in operations 10 days before a fictional Chinese invasion of Taiwan. That includes members of the armed forces, Chinese sleeper agents and pro-China politicians
STAY VIGILANT: When experiencing symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning, such as dizziness or fatigue, near a water heater, open windows and doors to ventilate the area Rooftop flue water heaters should only be installed outdoors or in properly ventilated areas to prevent toxic gas from building up, the Yilan County Fire Department said, after a man in Taipei died of carbon monoxide poisoning on Monday last week. The 39-year-old man, surnamed Chen (陳), an assistant professor at Providence University in Taichung, was at his Taipei home for the holidays when the incident occurred, news reports said. He was taking a shower in the bathroom of a rooftop addition when carbon monoxide — a poisonous byproduct of combustion — leaked from a water heater installed in a poorly ventilated
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