An energy lifeline is not a strategy
My op-ed — “An energy lifeline is not a strategy” — runs in Taiwan’s leading English-language daily, the Taipei Times.
The starting point: a bill in the US Congress
A bipartisan bill, the Taiwan Energy Security and Anti-Embargo Act, cleared the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations in February. Its intent is sound: to guarantee Taiwan’s energy supply under Chinese pressure. But it keeps the island tied to the sea — and to a single patron whose mood can change.
The argument: energy security is generated on the island
Energy is Taiwan’s weak point. The island imports about 99 percent of its natural gas, which makes close to 40 percent of its electricity. Every LNG terminal sits on the west coast facing China; stored gas lasts days, not months. In a blockade, gas fails first.
A lifeline is not a strategy. A bill that merely secures resupply by tanker barely addresses the one supply a blockade cannot reach: the power Taiwan makes and controls at home. The island’s security will not arrive on a tanker — it will be generated on the island.