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Sandwiched by Coal-Burning and Air Pollution, Are Free Rides on Public Conveyances Really a Solution?

icon2017/12/06
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  Sandwiched by Coal-Burning and Air Pollution, Are Free Rides on Public Conveyances Really a Solution?

United Daily News Editorial (Taipei, Taiwan)

November 30, 2017

 Translation of an Excerpt

 

In order to counter the impending arrival of peak air pollution during the winter, local governments in central and southern Taiwan have recently tossed out magic solutions one after another. The first to take action was Kaohsiung City, announcing that for the next three months starting from December, the city would implement a measure to allow free rides on public conveyances, with the Air Pollution Fund to foot the bill. When other cities and counties were still waiting and watching to see whether to follow suit, Taichung City immediately announced the approval of permits for eight generators of the Taichung Thermal Power Plant, which had been held up so far, but at the same time, City Hall also reduced the plant’s coal burning volume by 5 million tons per year. The problem is, can adopting these short-term measures truly save the ever-worsening air quality?

 

Taiwan’s deteriorating air quality has an inextricably inseparable relationship with the failure of solving long-term pollution from vehicles, including motorcycles. In addition, it is even closely connected with the Tsai government’s pursuit of a nuclear-free homeland, endlessly hiking the capacity of coal-fired plants in order to meet power demands.

 

The government has always touted the ringing slogans of nuclear-free, green energy and LNG; however, in actual implementation, achievements always lag far behind goals, with not even one item reaching the target. This is precisely the greatest unpredictability of Taiwan's energy supply. In the past year and a half, since the Tsai government came to power, it has repeatedly guaranteed the people that there will not be a power shortage and electricity rates will not be hiked, either. However, in fact, not only does the power supply seem to be walking on tightropes, the problem is compounded by the creeping increase in the ratio of coal burning, which is, in essence, using polluting Taiwan's environment as the price, and at the same time, elevating the risks to people's health. This is a policy that nobody could appreciate.

 

In policies, the government often makes a blunder in the general direction, and then other mistakes follow one by one. Precisely because of the misplaced timetable for a nuclear-free homeland, it is followed by policies of sacrificing air quality, farmland, algae reefs, and the environment one after another; hence, there are measures of free rides on public transportation and the creeping approval of coal-fired generators. Nevertheless, short-term measures can only reap stop-gap results; how could it be possible to fundamentally resolve the crisis of Taiwan's power supply and air pollution by some sheerly superficial efforts?

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