China's top economic planning agency has revoked approvals for
13 small coal-fired power plants in six provinces amid efforts to
boost energy efficiency and reduce pollution.
The 13 plants have 25 power generating units with a total
installed capacity of 2.44 gigawatts. Four are in Liaoning, two in Jilin, three in Shanxi, one in Hebei, two in Henan, and one in Guizhou.
In the picture taken in
June 2007, smoke from the Taiyuan Ferroalloy Plant in Tongren,
southwest China's Guizhou Province, heavily pollute the nearby
farmlands.
The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said on
Sunday that it has banned construction on the power plants that had
earlier received approvals from either the central government or
local governments.
The NDRC ordered construction to cease on projects already begun
and already built facilities to be dismantled.
The government has been encouraging the construction of large
power plants while closing small ones that consume more energy and
discharge more pollutants.
The government has shut down 365 power generating units in
operation with a combined capacity of more than 11 gigawatts from
January to November.
The government has vowed to reduce the energy consumption per
unit of gross domestic product (GDP) by 20 percent and major
pollutants emissions by ten percent between 2006 and 2010.
The nation's energy consumption per unit of GDP dropped three
percent year-on-year in the first three quarters of 2007.
Meanwhile, the sulfur dioxide emissions fell 1.81 percent and
chemical oxygen demand (a measure of water pollution) dropped 0.28
percent.
A coking plant in Lucheng,
Shanxi Province was fined 50,000 yuan (US$ 6,784.72) for
environmental pollution in December 2006.
(Xinhua News Agency December 17, 2007)
