The companies are the Datang International Power Generation Co., Ltd, the Huaneng Group, the Huadian Corporation and the Guodian Corporation Power producers in Hebei, Shanxi, Guizhou and Shandong provinces will also not be allowed to expand for the same reason. Pan said SEPA also wants local officials who provided approval for the projects to be investigated. The latest inspection results from the SEPA show that there are 82 illegal construction projects throughout the country, involving iron and steel and other metallurgy projects, along with electric generation, and other sectors that had a combined investment of 112.3 billion yuan (about 14.4 billion U.S. dollars).

Niu Fengrui, director of the development and environment research center under the China Academy of Social Sciences, said that heavily polluting industries are the most serious problem facing China’s environment and SEPA’s latest move to blacklist companies from further expansion is an effective way to improve the situation. Environment degradation has become a bottleneck in China’s economic and social development.

In 2006 there were 161 serious pollution accidents, for an average of almost one every two days. The country failed to reach the State Council’s target of lowering energy consumption by four percent and cutting pollutant emissions by two percent in 2006. Analysts said the restriction on new power projects may affect the nation’s new power generating capacity in the short term, but once the power giants adopt environmental requirements, it will have little impact on national building of power facilities.

Pan said the SEPA will closely monitor the corrections made by the four power giants and in the four regions, and publish the results within three months.