Environmentalists staged a protest in front of the Legislative Yuan in Taipei yesterday, calling on Minister of Economic Affairs Chang Chia-juch (張家祝) to step down if he could not stop power rates from rising.
The second stage of a government plan to raise electricity rates is scheduled to take effect in October. Chang has not yielded to lawmakers’ suggestion to postpone the plan.
At a meeting of the legislature’s Economics Committee on Monday, Chang said that the power rate hike in October would save energy and reduce carbon emissions.
He added that about 67 percent of general households and 33 percent of small companies would not be affected by the rate increase.
Kao Cheng-yan (高成炎), a National Taiwan University professor and member of the Taiwan Environmental Protection Union, yesterday said that a representative of a foreign energy company who visited Taiwan in March has said it can sell Taiwan natural gas at a reasonable price.
If Taiwan Power Co accepted the company’s offer, it could lower its power generation cost from natural gas to about NT$3.5 per kilowatt-hour — instead of the company’s claim that it costs NT$5.7 per kilowatt-hour to generate electricity from the same source, Kao said.
Nuclear-Free Homeland Alliance executive director Lee Cho-han (李卓翰) said that nuclear power is the most expensive source of energy, both in terms of economic cost and social cost, but the government tends to overestimate the cost of electricity from natural gas or other renewable energies.
Lee said the government should conduct a thorough investigation of energy waste in the country and enforce energy-saving methods that could reduce total electricity consumption by 39 percent, based on the National Science Council’s National Science and Technology Program on Energy.
Taipei and New Taipei City government officials are aiming to have the first phase of the Wanhua-Jungho-Shulin Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) line completed and opened by 2027, following the arrival of the first train set yesterday. The 22km-long Light Green Line would connect four densely populated districts in Taipei and New Taipei City: Wanhua (萬華), Jhonghe (中和), Tucheng (土城) and Shulin (樹林). The first phase of the project would connect Wanhua and Jhonghe districts, with Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall and Chukuang (莒光) being the terminal stations. The two municipalities jointly hosted a ceremony for the first train to be used
MILITARY AID: Taiwan has received a first batch of US long-range tactical missiles ahead of schedule, with a second shipment expected to be delivered by 2026 The US’ early delivery of long-range tactical ballistic missiles to Taiwan last month carries political and strategic significance, a military source said yesterday. According to the Ministry of National Defense’s budget report, the batch of military hardware from the US, including 11 sets of M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) and 64 MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile Systems, had been scheduled to be delivered to Taiwan between the end of this year and the beginning of next year. However, the first batch arrived last month, earlier than scheduled, with the second batch —18 sets of HIMARS, 20 MGM-140 missiles and 864 M30
Representative to the US Alexander Yui delivered a letter from the government to US president-elect Donald Trump during a meeting with a former Trump administration official, CNN reported yesterday. Yui on Thursday met with former US national security adviser Robert O’Brien over a private lunch in Salt Lake City, Utah, with US Representative Chris Stewart, the Web site of the US cable news channel reported, citing three sources familiar with the matter. “During that lunch the letter was passed along, and then shared with Trump, two of the sources said,” CNN said. O’Brien declined to comment on the lunch, as did the Taipei
A woman who allegedly attacked a high-school student with a utility knife, injuring his face, on a Taipei metro train late on Friday has been transferred to prosecutors, police said yesterday. The incident occurred near MRT Xinpu Station at about 10:17pm on a Bannan Line train headed toward Dingpu, New Taipei City police said. Before police arrived at the station to arrest the suspect, a woman surnamed Wang (王) who is in her early 40s, she had already been subdued by four male passengers, one of whom was an off-duty Taipei police officer, police said. The student, 17, who sustained a cut about
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