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July 16th
Cadmium pollution in Yunnan reopens debate over public interest litigation - Chinadialogue.net Murky legislation, high appraisal costs and a lack of accountability mean that legal reform is desperately needed. Zhang Chun considers whether China can learn from the US on this issue...Since 2011 Friends of Nature and the Chongqing Green Volunteer Association have been investigating the dumping of 5,000 tonnes of cadmium waste in Luliang county, culminating in a suit against Heping Technology and Luliang Chemicals. Because the NGOs were unable to cover the high costs of appraising the harm done, the two parties opted for pre-trial mediation. The defendants subsequently rejected a deal including remedial works and risk evaluation, meaning the case proceeded to a new hearing.// This is from Chinadialogue - all of their articles are in English and Chinese.
中缅天然气管道缅甸段进气试运行 - sina & 中国石油新闻中心 Myanmar - China pipeline trials started // 中缅天然气管道皎漂首站进站阀门打开，上游气田向管道进气；8时30分，天然气纯气头进入皎漂首站；8时45分，站内天然气置换完成。至此，中缅天然气管道缅甸段投入使用，进入试运行阶段。
CNPC completes China's first 30 Bcm/year synthetic coal gas pipeline - Platts State-owned China National Petroleum Corp said Tuesday that it has commissioned China's first dedicated synthetic coal gas pipeline in western Xinjiang province.
PetroChina’s Rudong LNG terminal imports rise by 62% - Interfax PetroChina’s Rudong import terminal received 1.77 mt of LNG during H1 2013, up by 62.4% from the same period in 2012, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine said in a statement on Monday.
广州市公交车8年内逐步改烧液化天然气- Xinhua In 8 years all of Guangzhou's buses will run on compressed natural gas//广州市公交车8年内逐步改烧液化天然气 | LNG将成为未来一个时期主要运用清洁能源，对改善广州空气质量有积极意义
新快报讯 广州市政府常务会议昨日还审议通过《广州市公交行业逐步推广应用液化天然气公交车工作方案》。市交委副主任刘卫表示，广州将在未来8年内逐步实现LNG（液化天然气）替代LPG（液化石油气）的工作。目前在用未过报废期的公交车不强制改用LNG。据了解，为改善空气质量，2003年开始广州逐步推广应用LPG公交车，以替换此前普遍采用的柴油公交车。截至目前，广州出租车有18000多辆，公交车接近1万辆，绝大多数都是使用LPG。
China’s construction material industry faces higher gas bill - Interfax China’s construction material industry – the country’s third-largest industrial gas consumer – is facing an 18% jump in its gas bill after Beijing hiked wholesale gas prices for commercial and industrial users last week for the first time in three years, according to an industry association report.
PetroChina unit in Shaanxi shut after pipeline rupture leaks oil into reservoir - SCMP
Ruptured pipeline has polluted reservoir, a drinking water source for Yanan residents | A PetroChina unit in Shaanxi has been shut down after oil from a ruptured pipeline contaminated a source of drinking water for 200,000 residents of the city of Yanan.
中海油与BP就南海一深水区块签订石油合同-新华网CNOOC & BP sign production sharing contract for deepwaters in South China Sea. BP is responsible for the exploration costs. CNOOC will get no more than 51% of profit//中海油总公司16日与BP公司就南海珠江口盆地一深水区块签订石油合同，这也是中海油成立以来与外国合作伙伴签订的第200个石油合同。...根据合同规定，在勘探期内，BP将承担100％的勘探费用。中海油将有权参与合同区内任一商业油气发现最多51％的权益。中海油将担任该区块的作业者。
Weak China oil imports contrast with modest demand growth: Clyde Russell - Reuters How do you reconcile the apparently contradictory facts that China's oil demand and refinery runs hit four-month highs in June while imports of crude fell to the lowest in nine months?
中国环保监管缺位又“越位” 企业守法反而吃亏-经济参考报"Violating regulations is cheap, obeying them is expensive." According to various interviewees in the article, companies that comply with the regulations cannot be competitive on costs; if you comply and the other guy does not, you will lose market share. Even if you pay to install equipment, it is still better not to run it; and if you run it is still cheaper to run it improperly (e.g. burning high-sulfur coal on de-sulfurization equipment designed for low-sulfur coal). Faking statistics is the unwritten rule and the head engineer at the Environmental Bureau says it is more frightening to have misleading / sub-standard statistics than to have statistics at all.//“违法成本低，守法成本高。”一些企业投巨资搞环保，却陷入“劣币驱逐良币”的境地。中部一家煤化工企业负责人诉苦说：“我们环保投入已超过1亿元，包括除尘站、脱硫设备等，导致产品在价格竞争上处于劣势。公司产品每吨卖1100元，而别人每吨只卖1000元，结果市场只认不搞环保企业的产品。”...“违规排污有得赚”更成为企业违法排污的“护身符”。甘肃省一化工企业负责人给记者算了一笔账：年产1000万吨的水泥厂，如果投运减少大气污染物排放的脱硝设备，每年将增加成本超过5000万元，但停用1天就能省几十万元；即便被环保部门查处，最多也只是被罚款20万元。因此，有的企业宁交罚款、排污费，也不去治理。
Power plan sparks rally in solar firms - SCMP Shares of mainland solar panel and parts producers rose yesterday after Beijing raised its 2015 target for solar farm installation by 167 per cent, but analysts say the rally will quickly lose steam unless Beijing unveils long-awaited details on subsidised power tariffs to show how it can achieve the target.
Related: 国务院发光伏"国六条"细则 "十二五"再扩容75% - 经济参考报在美欧对华光伏“双反”的现实下，光伏产业翘首企盼国内市场的扩大。15日，《国务院关于促进光伏产业健康发展的若干意见》出台。这份文件进一步细化了国务院提出的刺激国内光伏需求的“国六条”，将2015年国内光伏发电装机目标在2000万千瓦基础上再上调75%，今后3年将新增装机容量3000万千瓦，并首次明确电价和补贴机制以及光伏准入门槛。
六月铁路货运量下降未现改善 - meitanwang Despite the recently announced re-org of the rail industry, shipments by rail have fallen.// 昨日(7月15日)铁路货运组织改革已正式实行整一个月，多家媒体报道铁路货运量止跌回升，但财新记者今日从中国铁路总公司获得数据显示，货运组织改革以来货运量未见明显改善，6月份铁路货运发送量等指标均呈环比下降趋势。
3亿吨进口煤冲击真相：国内运费高过跨国运输 -第一财经日报(上海) High domestic shipping costs bare major reason coal imports are cheaper than domestic supply.//进口煤的终端成本低于国内煤炭成本，即便有17%的增值税，进口煤的价格仍然低，而这主要是由于进口煤的税费、运输成本以及生产成本较低造成的。今年夏天，由中煤能源（601898.SH）和中国神华（601088.SH）两个中国煤炭行业“大佬”掀起的新一轮降价大潮已经在全煤炭行业蔓延，其他煤炭企业也被迫应战，导致煤价一跌再跌，直到目前仍没有止跌迹象。而这背后的原因，除国内煤炭需求难见好转外，进口煤的冲击也不容小觑。
Experts (Mostly) Back New Study on China’s Killer Coal -WSJ blogs A recent study asserting that a well-intentioned policy of distributing free coal in the winter could have cut China’s collective life expectancy by more than two and a half billion years has set off a vigorous debate in the media and drawn skeptical responses from Chinese government officials.
Experts, for their part, have generally endorsed the research — with a few caveats.
The paper, published last week by economists at MIT and three other universities, estimated that air pollution from coal heating cut average life expectancy by five and a half years in northern China during the 1990s.
Experts, for their part, have generally endorsed the research — with a few caveats.
The paper, published last week by economists at MIT and three other universities, estimated that air pollution from coal heating cut average life expectancy by five and a half years in northern China during the 1990s.
China’s next bet is on natural gas - Globe & Mail Despite these negative indicators (economic slowdown), growth in overall absolute energy consumption – barrels of oil, tons of coal, cubic feet of gas, and so on – is still robust and rising. That’s because China’s total energy use – now 20-per-cent greater than that of the United States – is compounding off of a much larger base of consumption. In other words, it doesn’t take as much economic growth on a per-cent basis to draw on greater amounts of energy in an absolute sense.