Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian may bow to parliamentary pressure to revive work on a partially-built nuclear power plant to end disputes over the project, it was reported Saturday.
The Presidential Office may "agree to continue building the nuclear project as it is eager to settle the squabbles," the United Evening News cited sources from the office saying.
"It could be expected that disputes over the fourth nuclear power plant would be resolved soon," possibly next week, the newspaper said.
The opposition-dominated parliament on Friday insisted that the cabinet should immediately resume construction of the 5.6-billion-dollar project under a resolution it passed three days ago.
Opposition lawmakers gathered to discuss a proposal from Premier Chang Chun-hsiung aimed at breaking the deadlock after Chang's meeting with Parliament Speaker Wang Jin-pyng from the main opposition Kuomintang (KMT).
The premier urged the parliament to draft legislation two main areas of public concern -- one on referendums for major public polices and one on Taiwan's overall energy development.
The opposition alliance had rejected an immediate legislation on referendum, but the speaker said any issue would be open for discussions "after construction of the power plant was resumed."
In an extraordinary session Wednesday, parliamentarians passed a resolution 134-70, with six abstentions, vetoing the cabinet's decision on October 27 to stop work on the power plant.
The premier scrapped the project without consulting parliament as required by Taiwan's constitution.
President Chen, from the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), to which the premier also belongs, has offered to mediate.
The DPP holds only 66 seats of the 22O-seat legislative body, which is dominated by the KMT.
Chen had pledged to kill the project during the 2000 presidential elections, which he won overturning five decades of KMT rule.
The nuclear power plant project was pushed through parliament by the then KMT government in 1996, despite years of objections from environmentalists and residents.
Nuclear power accounts for 23.4 percent of electricity consumed on the island. Cancellation of the fourth plant would cost the state-run Taiwan Power Company some 2.7 billion dollars -- TAIPEI (AFP)
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
