china aims to increase coal production by 30pc

Just another reason to hold long term, shows coal has a big future in world energy needs.
But long term holders already know that hey.

China aims to increase coal production by 30pc by 2015 http://www.news.com.au/business/story/0,27753,24887816-31037,00.html

From correspondents in Beijing
Agence France-Presse
January 08, 2009 03:22pm

CHINA is aiming to increase its coal production by about 30 per cent by 2015 to meet its energy needs, the Government has announced, in a move likely to fuel concerns over global warming.
Beijing plans to increase annual output to more than 3.3 billion tonnes by 2015, said Hu Cunzhi, chief planner of the land and resources ministry.

That is up from the 2.54 billion tonnes in produced 2007, according to the ministry.

Figures for 2008 have not yet been released.

Annual production of natural gas will more than double to 160 billion cubic metres by 2015, while that of crude oil will increase by 7 per cent to more than 200 billion tonnes, according to Mr Cunzhi.

The Government will set up reserves of oil and coal as part of its efforts to ensure national energy security, added Mr Cunzhi at a press conference.

China began building four strategic oil reserve facilities on its east coast this decade, and two of these are now in operation.

The country's energy consumption expanded by an average annual rate of 5.4 per cent between 1979 and 2007, the official Xinhua news agency said, which fuelled average annual economic growth of 9.8 per cent.

The Australian, 8 Jan 2009 China is dependent on coal for about 70 per cent of its energy and because of its thundering growth the country has become one of the two biggest emitters of greenhouse gases alongside the US.

Beijing has said that coal, the cheapest and most plentiful source of fuel in China, will remain its major energy source, despite the impact global warming, which is blamed on greenhouse gases, has already had on the country.

However China has repeatedly defended its use of coal, pointing to its efforts to develop renewable energies while blaming industrialised countries for the bulk of the greenhouse gases that are already doing the damage.

It also emphasises that the per capita emissions of greenhouse gases of China, the world's most populous country with more than 1.3 billion people, are far lower than those of the US and other developed nations.