Shen Jong-chin's Boastful Electricity Rates Debunk Tsai Ing-wen’s Pie in the Sky

 Shen Jong-chin's Boastful Electricity Rates Debunk Tsai Ing-wen’s Pie in the Sky 

United Daily News Editorial (Taipei, Taiwan)

March 7, 2019

 Translation of an Excerpt

Economics Minister Shen Jong-chin presented a report to the Legislative Yuan on the assessment review of energy policy, saying that our country's electricity rates would be hiked by 33% because of energy source transformation by 2025. This version was exactly a contradictory contrast with what he had said earlier this year, i.e., electricity rates would not be adjusted. These two contrasting statements have exposed the Tsai government’s myopic near-term benefits and irresponsibility, also explaining that Tsai Ing-wen’s pie in the sky energy source transformation policy has failed, leaving the burden of consequences to the people and future administrations.

In the beginning, when Tsai Ing-wen boasted that the "nuclear-free homeland 2025" would not hike electricity rates, but in less than three years, this pledge has shown many loopholes. However, the Tsai government persists in its own policies, oblivious to the fact that the existing nuclear power plants still have a role in replacing power generation, insisting on phasing out nuclear power by 2025. Coal-fired power generation, which has exacerbated air pollution in Taiwan, would only be slightly lowered to 27% from 30%. This attitude, plain to everyone, seeks to hold supreme the nuclear-free totem, yet disregards whether the power supply is adequate, unmindful of the public's burden of electricity prices, and even the harm to people’s health due to the deterioration of air quality. At this point, the Tsai government's energy policy has completely failed.

Why did Shen Jong-chin forecast that the electricity rates would be hiked 33% by 2025? The reason being no other, regardless of whether Tsai Ing-wen will be re-elected next year, the hike in electricity rates by 2025 will no longer be the Tsai government’s concern. Now, Shen Jong-chin made this forecast is precisely to shake off responsibility, indicating, "Don't say that I did not warn you." The problem is that the policy decision of people now will leave their successors limitless headaches, while gaining the benefit of "no electricity rate hikes" by themselves; how could political figures of such mentality not send chills down one’s spine?

Let us look at the “Electricity Price Stabilization Fund”; the current scale is NT$78 billion. This sum should be used to scale down electricity rates during massive gyrations of international energy prices, avoiding the impact of short-term electricity rate reverberations on people's livelihood and the economy. However, Shen Jong-chin has used this fund as the private coffers to prop up the ruling party’s electoral prospects. In last year’s nine-in-one local elections, the Economics Ministry dipped into the fund to freeze electricity rates; the presidential election will be held next year, and now the same tactic will be duplicated. Not waiting until 2025, this fund will probably be exhausted.

Tsai Ing-wen did brag about her energy plan, saying it could cover power supply, carbon emission reductions, and electricity rates; now it looks like we can only say "bragging without prepared notes" with loopholes aplenty. In 2017, the August 15^th power outage was the first domino of the collapsing the energy policy; the great outburst of popular grievances over the exacerbation of air pollution coming from coal-fired power generation was the second domino. Now forecasting big hikes in electricity rates is the third domino. The fall of the three dominoes foretells that President Tsai’s energy policy will end in failure, but those who will swallow the bitter fruits of the policy at the time will be the general public.

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