Deputy appeals for greener coal mining policies

    The Liangyungang Coal Wharf in Jiangsu province. A legislator has called for more policies to encourage greener exploration of coal to improve energy efficiency and reduce pollution. [Photo / China Daily] 
    A legislator has called for more policies to encourage greener exploration of coal in an attempt to improve energy efficiency and reduce pollution.

    "Society is now striving to stop extravagance on the dinner table, but what should draw more attention is energy waste," said Bu Chan    gsen, chairman of Shandong Energy Group, the country's second-largest coal producer.

    Bu, also a deputy to the country's top legislature, said energy waste is extremely severe in the coal production process, which also discharges a large amount of solid waste and dust.

    He said coal burning generates 70 percent of the emissions of suspended particulate matter, a major source of air pollution in China. 

    "Waste on a dinner table may cost money, but energy waste kills. We can grow vegetables and breed cattle, but fossil fuels are non-renewable resources."