China to Create Powerful New Energy Agency Headed by Top Economic Planner

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China, struggling to cope with surging demand for power and soaring oil imports, has created a powerful new agency to oversee its energy sector, the government said Friday.

SHANGHAI, China — China, struggling to cope with surging demand for power and soaring oil imports, has created a powerful new agency to oversee its energy sector, the government said Friday.


The new agency should help China set uniform policies, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. Energy demand has skyrocketed as China's economy has boomed, and the communist leadership views the growing dependence on imported oil and gas as a risk to national security.


China's top economic planner, Ma Kai, will lead the new office for energy, which will report to the Cabinet, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. Reports said the office would oversee China's foreign gas and oil acquisitions and manage the coal supplies that provide two-thirds of its power.


The new agency replaces a less influential government bureau that has been criticized for failing to prevent chronic power shortages and effectively curbing severe pollution.


"Since China dissolved the Ministry of Energy in 1993, there has been a need for an authoritative institution to make energy policy and plans for the country," Xinhua said.


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China's energy sector has been divided between various ministries and state-run corporations, which has prevented effective coordination and makes enforcement of policies nearly impossible.


Earlier reports said Ma's deputies at the new office would include Xu Dingming, head of the Energy Bureau, and Ma Fucai, who resigned as general manager of China's biggest oil company, China National Petroleum Corp., after a gas field accident in 2003 killed 243 people.


Source: Associated Press