China will shut coal-fired power plants, cement factories and chemical manufacturers near Beijing to reduce pollution before the Olympic Games in August.

Operators of these sites have been told they will be closed 30 days before the Olympics begin on August 8.

Ten ‘major polluters’ have already been shut and more than 15,000 old buses and taxis in both Beijing and Tianjin have been taken off the road the State Environmental Protection Administration said in a statement on its Web site.

Zhou Xizeng, an equity analyst who covers steel companies at Citic Securities in Beijing, said, ‘The Olympics are the main theme this year so all the companies will go in line with the government’s directives on the environment. Summer is a good time to cut supply because it isn’t a peak season traditionally.’

The South China Morning Post reported February 5 that Haile Gebrselassie, the men’s marathon world record holder and shown here, said that while he will attend the Games, he may pull out at the starting line if conditions aren’t safe enough. He is quoted as saying, ‘If pollution is a serious problem I will not run.’ In fairness he already has respiratory problems so that would be prudent.
Source: Bloomberg

Beijing plans to shut down 144 petrol stations by the end of May. That is about 10% of the city’s total. The idea is to help clean up its air before the August Olympic games, state media.

These gas stations, and nine oil depots, are mostly owned by China’s state oil major Sinopec and by CNPC.

The oil facilities, mostly in outlying areas, are either too costly to run or fail to meet air quality regulations.

All the petrol stations in the capital city will have until the end of May to install equipment, costing about RMB600,000 ($83,680) apiece, to capture emissions from vehicles.

The city has 1,442 petrol stations.
Source: Reuters