You have commented 339 times on Rantburg.

Your Name
Your e-mail (optional)
Website (optional)
My Original Nic        Pic-a-Nic        Sorry. Comments have been closed on this article.
Bold Italic Underline Strike Bullet Blockquote Small Big Link Squish Foto Photo
Submit your comments on this article
China-Japan-Koreas
Cold weather, coal shortages put pressure on Beijing
2008-01-29
An acute coal shortage left China suffering its worst power crisis in years as unseasonably large snowfalls saw hundreds of thousands stranded when they tried to travel to their families for the lunar new year holiday. About half of China’s 31 provinces and regions have been hit by “brownouts”, or voltage reductions, caused by Beijing’s attempt to reimpose and tighten price controls on commodities including coal and oil.

Beijing is using old-fashioned price controls in an effort to stop food inflation, which has pushed the consumer price index to an 11-year high, from spreading to the rest of the economy.
That will work as well as price controls usually do ...
Power companies insist the brownouts are the result solely of coal shortages. But executives admit privately the industry may have exacerbated the situation to drive home to Beijing the unfairness of price controls. Global prices of coal, ChinaÂ’s staple fuel, have surged, causing pressure for the rises to be passed on. Power industry margins have also been cut by higher freight costs.
Posted by:lotp

#8  See also TOPIX NEWS > CHINESE POLITBURO TO MEET ON EXTREME WEATHER. The PLA is on disaster alert.
Posted by: JosephMendiola   2008-01-29 21:03  

#7  How many are going to die at the railroad station? It can't possibly have enough food, water and sanitary facilities for so many... although with that mass of bodies hopefully lack of provided heat won't be as much of an issue.
Posted by: trailing wife   2008-01-29 18:26  

#6  Spot on, Spot.

Ya' beat me too it. ;-p
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut   2008-01-29 15:15  

#5  Remember these are the people who by Dire Warnings[tm] are going to overtake us in economy, military, technology, etc in 7 10 20 30 years.
Posted by: Procopius2k   2008-01-29 11:44  

#4  I see China has been hit with as much global warming as we have.

BRRRRR!!!!
Posted by: DarthVader   2008-01-29 10:01  

#3  Chinese media estimated that 150,000 travellers were stuck on Monday at the main rail station in Guangzhou, capital of southern Guangdong province, with hundreds of thousands more expected in coming days.

All those people in one place? Sounds to me like a perfect opportunity for a opinion poll on global warming.
Notify the local Greenpeace chapter!
Posted by: tu3031   2008-01-29 09:21  

#2  Maybe they should tell Al Gore to go home.
Posted by: Spot   2008-01-29 08:10  

#1  China is good at brownouts and rolling blackouts. If the main train station in Guangzhou is without power, it is because the power company executives wish it so. They can black out only parts of a city, or only black out the factories and leave the city intact, and so on.

The fact that they're doing it during the pre-Spring Festival rush just adds to it. The poor workers, they're always the ones to pay when the big boys fight.
Posted by: gromky   2008-01-29 01:08  

00:00