A group of activists staged a skit in front of the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) building yesterday, saying state-run Taiwan Power Co's (Taipower, 台電公司) plan to expand the number of coal-fired power plants nationwide would increase the nation's carbon dioxide emissions.
A performer, playing the role of an EPA official, promised a man wearing a President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) mask that he would be able to handle the environmentalists if the government allowed Taipower to continue with its plan.
The activists said Taipower plans to add 15 new coal-fired power plants by 2025, which are expected to generate additional electricity generating capacity of 10.8 million kilowatts and in turn boost carbon dioxide emissions by 60 million tonnes.
They said that Taipower had proposed curbing emissions by adding three new nuclear power stations to its existing three in line with the Ma administration's plan to invest more resources in nuclear power.
While the recently passed Renewable Energy Act (再生能源條例) states that renewable energy infrastructure should generate an additional 6.5 million to 10 million in electricity over the next 20 years, activists said Taipower did not take this into consideration when drafting plans for new facilities.
The skit was targeted at an EPA meeting yesterday, with the agency inviting researchers to review Taipower's proposal.
Former Democratic Progressive Party legislator Wang To-fa (王塗發), now a professor at National Taipei University, asked at the meeting whether the company was overly optimistic in its estimates of economic growth and the nation's energy needs when it drew up its expansion plan.
The suggestions made by the researchers will be forwarded to the EPA's Environment Impact Assessment Committee for deliberation.
A tropical depression east of the Philippines became a tropical storm early yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, less than a week after a typhoon barreled across the nation. The agency issued an advisory at 3:30am stating that the 22nd tropical storm, named Yinxing, of the Pacific typhoon season formed at 2am. As of 8am, the storm was 1,730km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, with a 100km radius. It was moving west-northwest at 32kph, with maximum sustained winds of 83kph and gusts of up to 108kph. Based on its current path, the storm is not expected to hit Taiwan, CWA
Residents have called on the Taipei City Government to reconsider its plan to demolish a four-decades-old pedestrian overpass near Daan Forest Park. The 42-year-old concrete and steel structure that serves as an elevated walkway over the intersection of Heping and Xinsheng roads is to be closed on Tuesday in preparation for demolition slated for completion by the end of the month. However, in recent days some local residents have been protesting the planned destruction of the intersection overpass that is rendered more poetically as “sky bridge” in Chinese. “This bridge carries the community’s collective memory,” said a man surnamed Chuang
FATALITIES: The storm claimed at least two lives — a female passenger in a truck that was struck by a falling tree and a man who was hit by a utility pole Workers cleared fallen trees and shop owners swept up debris yesterday after one of the biggest typhoons to hit the nation in decades claimed at least two lives. Typhoon Kong-rey was packing winds of 184kph when it slammed into eastern Taiwan on Thursday, uprooting trees, triggering floods and landslides, and knocking out power as it swept across the nation. A 56-year-old female foreign national died from her injuries after the small truck she was in was struck by a falling tree on Provincial Highway 14A early on Thursday. The second death was reported at 8pm in Taipei on Thursday after a 48-year-old man
A tropical depression east of the Philippines became a tropical storm earlier today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The 22nd tropical storm, named Yinxing, in this year's Pacific typhoon season formed at 2am, the CWA said. As of 8am, the storm was 1,730km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) with a 100km radius, it said. It was moving west-northwest at 32kph, with maximum sustained winds of 83kph and gusts of up to 108kph. Based on its current path, the storm is not expected to hit Taiwan, CWA meteorologist Huang En-hung (黃恩宏) said. However, a more accurate forecast would be made on Wednesday, when Yinxing is
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