China’s order to Beijing’s dirtiest gas stations just to close rather than add to the city’s air pollution is only the latest sign of the government’s determination to have the Olympics this summer run to order.
Nine oil depots in and around the capital and 144 gas stations too antiquated to be fitted with pollution minimizing nozzles will shut by the end of May. There are 1,442 gas stations in Beijing, Xinhua reports with its usual scrupulous attention to statistical detail, so the closure will affect one in 10. The stations and depots affected are mostly owned by Sinopec and China National Petroleum Corp.
Beijing’s poor air quality has been one of the biggest concerns for the Games’ organizers. The British Olympic Association said on Thursday it was considering supplying its athletes with masks at the Olympics to counter pollution. Last year, International Olympic Committee chief Jacques Rogge warned that some events could be postponed if the air pollution was too severe.
There is no way that is going to be allowed to happen. Beijing has begun shutting down blast furnaces at the iconic Beijing Capital Iron & Steel Group — the city’s biggest steel company and one of its worst polluters, and which is being moved to new mills being built on the coast 220 kms away. All construction work in the city is due to cease in May. Many cars will be ordered off the roads during the Games, and thousands of temporary residents will be given holidays to return home to cut congestion further.
Beijing then will probably seem as still as the grey pall that usually hangs over it on humid August days.
China Bystander 