A post-referendum survey showed voters were unaware of Taiwan’s energy policy.
The News Lens
Date: 2018/12/18
By: Roy Ngerng
Credit: Reuters / Pichi Chuang
Last month, Taiwan held three referendums on energy-related issues, which all passed, but questions have been raised on whether the electorate were sufficiently aware of the issues to vote on them.
The three referendum questions were:
Question 7: Do you agree that the electricity output of thermal power plants should be lowered by at least 1 percent every year?
Question 8: Do you agree that Taiwan should establish an energy policy that undertakes not to construct any new coal-fired power plants or generators or expand existing facilities (including the expansion of the Shen’ao Power Plant)?
Question 16: Do you agree with abolishing the first paragraph of Article 95 of the Electricity Act, which stipulated that, “all nuclear-energy-based power-generating facilities shall completely cease operations by 2025”?
The referendums passed but even when the questions were first proposed, there was confusion as to why they were put to the vote in the first place. [FULL STORY]
