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.
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
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
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,
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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