Parts of China will face an energy shortage this winter, according to a report in AP. Last month, China Daily reported that nine provinces may face power blackouts this winter.
The privatization of housing has contributed to the country’s energy woes: “State employers used to supply winter heating to company-issued housing for free. But now most housing has been privatized and heating suppliers operate as utilities that must bill customers, many of whom do not pay. Since heating systems are centralized, often using pipes to circulate hot water through entire city districts, individual apartments can’t be cut off without affecting the entire heating system, the report noted. Such inefficiencies have added to China’s energy woes and forced it to rely increasingly on imported crude oil to keep power plants and factories running.,” according to the AP report.
Last week, electricity prices in Beijing were raised in order to address the power shortages, according to another China Daily report.
In order to meet increasing energy demands, China is using highly pollutant forms of energy such as coal, which is creating a public health and environmental disaster. Louisa Lim of the BBC profiles a retired worker in Tangshan who is fighting against the pollution from a coke plant that he and his neighbors believe has increased cancer and leukemia rates among local residents.
