Japan Press Weekly

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2012 June 13 - 19 [ENVIRONMENT]

Subsidies for increasing use of solar energy are ‘wasteful’: Osaka mayor

Osaka City Mayor Hashimoto Toru said that subsidizing a project to encourage citizens to install solar power systems in their homes seems like “pouring water into a desert” in a discussion at the city assembly.

Hashimoto proposed abolishing a city project to promote the installation of solar power equipment in households and business offices in his “civic reform plan”.

Japanese Communist Party member of the city assembly Kitayama Ryozo on June 13 questioned the mayor about the reform plan. Kitayama gave some examples that the growth rate of solar power generation in Osaka City is three times the national average and that small- and medium-sized businesses within the city receive 72% of contracts for the installation of solar panels. He said, “The solar power promotion project plays an important role in society. The municipality needs to introduce more initiatives to promote renewable sources of energy.”

Hashimoto persisted in discontinuing the project, saying, “It is wrong to talk about the ‘efficiency’ or ‘necessity’ of renewable energy without taking into account its cost.”

The JCP assemblyman criticized Hashimoto for approving the restart of operations of idled nuclear reactors at the Oi nuclear power plant in Fukui Prefecture although the mayor previously stated that their resumption of operations was “unacceptable”. Kitayama said to the mayor, “Did you really intend to introduce reusable energy and break away from nuclear power generation or was that just political posturing?”