Why can't Taiwan's "Green Electricity Cockroach" be eliminated, and how has it become an industry chain for fraud and extortion crimes?

The report pointed out that the so-called “green power cockroaches” by the media and prosecutors do not only refer to energy companies, but also to a structural criminal network composed of grassroots civil servants, underworlds, and a small number of speculative businessmen. \n\n"Green electricity cockroaches" rely on green and clean energy to reproduce in large numbers\n\nRenewable energy infrastructure has low-carbon, renewable and long-term cost advantages, and is regarded as the key infrastructure for the global journey towards zero emissions. Taiwan’s green energy infrastructure is seriously backward, affecting the rights and interests of all Taiwanese people. \n\nThe three major criminal methods of green electric cockroaches\n\nThere are three main criminal patterns of green electric cockroaches. The first type is “investment fraud”, which is mostly caused by “self-proclaimed” renewable energy startups spreading false information to deceive investment or subsidies, and the cases are usually treated as financial or commercial crimes. The second category is “corruption cases”, which include the embezzlement of power by civil servants and bribery by collusion between officials and businessmen. It is worth noting that most of the people involved are “grassroots civil servants”, and the crimes are highly concentrated at the “township level”, indicating that the problem of corruption does not come from the high-level, but from the grassroots level. \n\nEnergy developers are not the perpetrators, but the targets of blackmail by the underworld and local interests.\n\nThe research subverts the common assumption that energy developers are the perpetrators. In most cases, energy companies are instead extorted by local factions, civil servants, or underworld forces, and are forced to pay kickbacks, donations, or transfer benefits through intermediaries in exchange for land use, administrative review, or grid access. This reflects the weak local governance, factional politics and organized crime, which have become breeding grounds for “green electric cockroaches”. From a structural perspective, the study points to two key institutional incentives. The first is “land allocation and use control”, where renewable energy requires a large amount of scattered land, especially in rural or sparsely populated areas, resulting in a high degree of control between local governments and grassroots officials, becoming a space for extortion. The second is the “feed-in tariff subsidy” (FIT) system. Although stable and subsidized prices can promote investment, they also convert development permits into monetizable “concessions”, attracting a large number of green electric cockroaches to intervene in the sharing of food. These environmental crimes not only cause financial losses, but also erode public trust, intensify social antipathy towards renewable energy, and even become a tool for political parties to attack the incompetence of energy transition policies, further intensifying the confrontation between Taiwan’s ruling party and the opposition parties and the people. \n\nHow to kill Green Power Xiaoqiang? \n\nHow can you kill Green Power Xiaoqiang? The research report suggests that all green power information should be published online, local control should be taken back, managed by the central government, and an online system should be established to make all funds open and transparent to the public. Green and clean energy itself has good intentions, but the problem lies in loopholes in the system and governance. Only by strengthening the legal framework and establishing a transparent and fair competition mechanism can we prevent the continuous proliferation of “green power cockroaches” and eat away at Taiwan’s energy development. \n\nThis article Why can’t Taiwan’s “green electric cockroaches” be killed and become a fraud and intimidation criminal industry chain? appeared first on Chain News ABMedia.