President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) has promised to respond within a week to public concerns over environmental problems, especially the issue of nuclear power, seven representatives of environmental non-governmental organizations (NGO) said after a meeting with the president on Earth Day yesterday.
Homemakers United Foundation president Chen Man-li (陳曼麗) said they told the president that the fate of the controversial Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in Gongliao (貢寮), New Taipei City (新北市), should not be decided by a national referendum.
She said they also urged that the high threshold for passing a referendum be amended, that the question in the planned referendum be rephrased to whether construction “should be continued,” that a 30km radius “escape zone” from the nuclear plants be established, and that the proposed law on the promotion of a nuclear-free homeland be enacted.
“I told the president that the Fourth Nuclear Plant project should be scrapped immediately, rather than waste so much taxpayers’ money to hold a referendum,” Gongliao Anti-Nuclear Self-Help Association member and Taiwan Environmental Protection Union’s (TEPU) northeastern branch director Wu Wen-chang (吳文樟) said.
“While the three operating nuclear power plants generate about 16 percent of the total electricity supply in Taiwan and the new plant will supply about 6 percent after the three plants are retired, we have more than 20 percent power reserves at present, so I told the president that we won’t have a power shortage problem even if we stop them all at once,” he said.
He said Ma also gave his verbal consent to his proposal to allow Gongliao residents to participate in future visits to the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant construction site, after the self-help association members’ proposal to meet Premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) was rejected when he visited the plant on Wednesday.
Citizen’s Congress Watch executive director Chang Hung-lin (張宏林) said he suggested that legislators — as well as citizens — should be able to vote according to their own will on the referendum proposal, rather than conform to an order issued by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus, but Ma did not respond to the suggestion.
Chen said Ma agreed that their suggestion to hold a national energy conference to discuss future energy policy directions may help the public better understand Taiwan’s energy situation.
As for other questions and suggestions, Ma said he would ask concerned government agencies to give them a response within a week.
In addition to nuclear power issues, the groups suggested enacting laws on wetlands and ocean conservation, improving the nation’s self-sufficiency rate in food and food safety, re-evaluating development projects along the eastern coastline and improving public animal shelters and reducing the rate of stray animals put to death.
They said that if the government agencies’ response
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
A magnitude 4.9 earthquake struck off Tainan at 11:47am today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The hypocenter was 32.3km northeast of Tainan City Hall at a depth of 7.3km, CWA data showed. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Tainan and Chiayi County on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. The quake had an intensity of 3 in Chiayi City and County, and Yunlin County, while it was measured as 2 in Kaohsiung, Nantou County, Changhua County, Taitung County and offshore Penghu County, the data showed. There were no immediate reports of
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is maintaining close ties with Beijing, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, hours after a new round of Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait began. Political parties in a democracy have a responsibility to be loyal to the nation and defend its sovereignty, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) told a news conference in Taipei. His comments came hours after Beijing announced via Chinese state media that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command was holding large-scale drills simulating a multi-pronged attack on Taiwan. Contrary to the KMT’s claims that it is staunchly anti-communist, KMT Deputy
RESPONSE: The government would investigate incidents of Taiwanese entertainers in China promoting CCP propaganda online in contravention of the law, the source said Taiwanese entertainers living in China who are found to have contravened cross-strait regulations or collaborated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) could be subject to fines, a source said on Sunday. Several Taiwanese entertainers have posted on the social media platform Sina Weibo saying that Taiwan “must be returned” to China, and sharing news articles from Chinese state media. In response, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has asked the Ministry of Culture to investigate whether the entertainers had contravened any laws, and asked for them to be questioned upon their return to Taiwan, an official familiar with the matter said. To curb repeated