IEA Chides China on Electricity Use

From today's New York Times:

The International Energy Agency on Monday called for China to revamp its electric power industry, noting that waste and inefficiency contributed to the need for the country to add enough new, mostly coal-fired, power plants every two years to equal the entire electricity generation capacity of France or Canada.

In a report issued at its headquarters in Paris, the energy agency was especially critical of China’s decision to limit increases in electricity prices, saying that this prompted Chinese consumers and industries to use considerably more energy than they needed.

Although some of my readers disagree, I couldn't help but think of that Robert Samuelson column from last week that put the global energy challenge in such stark relief.

Click here for the press release from IEA. Click here to order the report.

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