“Seamless” Energy Policy Sold at Auction for Electioneering

 “Seamless” Energy Policy Sold at Auction for Electioneering

United Daily News Editorial (Taipei, Taiwan)

October 15, 2018

 Translation of an Excerpt

After the Guantang LNG terminal case was railroaded through, Premier Lai Ching-te fulfilled his pledge to "use Guantang in exchange for Shenao, " declaring that the reconstruction of the Shenao coal-fired power plant would be suspended, and even upping the ante to offer as an additional “great gift” that the generators of the coal-fired Taichung Power Plant would be phased out ahead of schedule in 2023. If anyone believes that Premier Lai was a "man of his word," that would be too naïve. In fact, were it not for the DPP’s prospects in the year-end elections sounding alarms, the Tsai government would not have auctioned off “suicide-style” the energy policy that it, itself, described as completely seamless.

In addition to suspending the reconstruction of Shenao plant and upping the ante of the Taichung coal-fired plant, on the same day, the Central Election Commission also announced that the plebiscite proposal introduced by the private sector on "using nuclear energy to nurture green energy" failed to clear the final bar. The "three arrows in one day" of the Tsai government all zeroed in on the energy policies; it is not difficult to imagine the DPP’s misgivings about the impact of its energy policies and air pollution on the elections reached such a worrisome and dreadful extent. The calculations are in fact obvious: suspending the reconstruction of the Shenao Power Plant is to rescue Su Tseng-chang's election prospects in New Taipei City; suspending the generators of the Taichung Power Plant ahead of schedule is to help stop the bleeding of Lin Chia-lung's election prospects in Taichung City. As to blocking the plebiscite proposal on “using nuclear energy to nurture green energy" and removing the fuse on the "anti-Shenao" plebiscite proposal, they are both for helping to silence the criticisms over the Tsai government's energy policies, which have become hostage in electoral campaigns. All of this is for political operations aimed at the elections.

What is even more difficult to accept is that based on Tsai Ing-wen's energy policies, in the future, as high as 80% of power generation will rely on thermal-powered plants, fundamentally unhelpful to reducing carbon emissions, still maintaining 30% of coal, which would be extremely limited in reducing air pollution. In reality, as long as the progression of the "nuclear-free homeland" is pragmatically readjusted based on needs and implementation capabilities, postponing the decommissioning of Nuclear Power Plants No. 1 and No. 2, plus the commercial operation of Nuclear Power Plant No. 4 (now mothballed), it would acquire an installed capacity exceeding the baseload power plant of carbon emission-less nuclear power of the entire Taichung Power Plant. Thus, it would neither have to use Shenao as a bargaining chip, nor would we have to force the railroading of the Guantang EIA passage.

For elections, the Tsai government could, surprisingly, dismantle and cut its energy policies that had been touted in glowing terms, and put them up for auction. Then, who would still believe that this kind of policies were rational?

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