Paul Huang
Great segment by ChinaTalk with @AngelicaOung on Taiwan's energy problem. The extreme politicization of energy policy, incompetence by Taipower, partisan malfeasance (DPP), deprived Taiwan the energy it needs today to capture the immense growth opportunities it could have.
Angelica 🌐⚛️🇹🇼🇨🇳🇺🇸
Applause for Lily Ottinger and Aqib Zakaria of ChinaTalk. When they interviewed me a few weeks earlier are was impressed by the depth of their knowledge of Taiwanese energy lore. Like...down to the last time a gas plant blew up because of a faulty flange. They don't seem to be on twitter and I'm like thinking to myself "is this what happens when you don't spend most of your time brain rotting on twitter you actually research for your work instead of winging it reactively?" Anyhow...they've produced what I consider to be a MASTERPIECE on explaining Taiwan's energy dilemma. Yes, it features yours truly. But also thinktanky energy experts and renewable energy insiders and Taipower deep-throat dish dishers. (I was for some reason very charmed by the fact that they regenerated the voice by AI of the industry insider instead of just distorting it to increase security, but then pitched it down anyhow for artistic effect. That's attention to detail.) Anyhow...this might not be you. But if for some reason you have a burning need to understand everything there is to understand about how Taiwan got so screwed on energy, this one podcast will explain it to you. It's also a story of how things go wrong despite good intentions. How political parties get locked into bad positions by historical contingency and negative polarization. The bad things that happen where spin becomes a viable mechanism to delay consequences.
