From AP:
China’s environment ministry has suspended construction of two ambitious hydropower dams in the upper Yangtze River region, saying the projects were illegal because they were started without necessary environmental assessments.
The announcement, carried widely in state media Friday, is an unusually aggressive move by the Ministry of Environmental Protection, whose local bureaus answer to local governments despite it being upgraded to a full ministry last year.
The dams are part of an estimated 200 billion yuan ($30 billion) project involving hydropower stations along the Jinsha River tributary in southwestern China which environmentalists have said would damage the region’s biodiversity.
