Let people burn coal for heating if gas supply is inadequate

The shift from coal to gas for heating in the winter has left tens of thousands of rural families in North China’s Hebei province shivering because of the shortage of natural gas. This fact came to light last week when some photographs showing some primary school students in Quyang county of Hebei running on the playground just to keep warm went viral online.

Although the Quyang local government promised to ensure uninterrupted gas supply to schools within two days, the gas supply in the county, as in many other places in Hebei, has been grossly inadequate, prompting the Ministry of Environmental Protection to issue an urgent notice saying people in areas where regular gas supply was uncertain could continue burning coal for heating.

Governments at various levels have set aside special funds for the costly yet meaningful undertaking, subsidizing not only the installment of new pipelines and heating facilities, but also part of the future gas bills, which will be two to three times higher than those for coal.

More importantly, the Asian Infrastructure Investment bank has approved a $250 million loan for a project intended to reduce China’s coal use by about 650,000 metric tons a year by connecting about 216,750 houses in about 510 villages in Beijing to the gas distribution network, in order to facilitate the smooth progress of the coal-to-gas project.