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)