China Suspends "Dirty" Projects for Violating Environmental Rules

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China’s State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) recently suspended 82 major construction projects, representing 112.3 billion yuan (US$14.4 billion) in investments, for violating state environmental regulations. The infringements included failing to conduct required environmental impact assessments (EIAs) and neglecting to build adequate pollution prevention facilities.

Until the laggard projects are brought into compliance, SEPA said it would reject permits for all new construction activities undertaken by four Chinese cities as well as the four power plants that own and support most of the projects (China Datang Corp., China Huaneng Group, China Huadian Corp., and China Guodian Corp.), Xinhua News reports. Construction activities related to the nation’s goal of achieving “sustainable economies” are exempted from the ruling.

According to SEPA, the projects are concentrated mainly in the steel, power, chemical, and metallurgy industries, which typically consume the most energy and generate the most pollutants. One of the blacklisted cities, Tangshan (near Beijing), has built around 70 steel plants, far exceeding the region’s environmental capacity, and only 20 percent of the facilities have passed EIAs. Tangshan accounts for nearly 10 percent of Chinese steel production, yet the average output of each manufacturer is less than 650,000 tons, indicating inefficient economies of scale and resource use. With limited output and scattered distribution, the plants are worsening the air and water quality of Tangshan and nearby cities.

SEPA took the strict measure to suspend construction activities in an effort to crack down on some of China’s leading power producers, who have tended to disregard state environmental regulations. It is also exercising its muscle against local administrations that have been protecting heavily polluting projects from complying with environmental rules.

Within the past year, SEPA has stopped or delayed some 163 projects, representing total investments of 770 billion yuan (US$ 98.7 billion). However, the nation’s rate of pollution has not slowed, while the environment continues to deteriorate. In 2006, 161 severe environmental pollution accidents were reported in China, and SEPA received nearly 600,000 complaints on environmental issues, a 30 percent increase over 2005. The nation also failed to meet its set goal of cutting energy consumption by 4 percent and pollutant emissions by 2 percent, according to Pan Yue, vice minister of SEPA.