Chinese Co may resume work on Thar coal project RAMZAN CHANDIO KARACHI - The Mines and Mineral Department of the Sindh government has made a comprehensive plan to utilise the natural resources of province while three large granite factories would be set up in Nagarparkar of Tharparker and 30 percent energy will be produced from the coal reserves by 2030, the senior official told The Nation.

Poland Sees Power Prices Surging On EU Carbon Plan NORWAY: April 10, 2008 OSLO - Polish electricity prices could surge 50-70 percent if the European Union goes ahead with plans to force power producers to buy their carbon emission permits from 2013, Environment Minister Maciej Nowicki said on Wednesday. Nowicki said Poland would be particularly hard hit by the rules, proposed in January and contested by Warsaw, because nearly all of its electricity comes from dirty coal and lignite and so its power producers will need a large number of permits.

ADB yet to notify Asia Energy Staff Correspondent Global Coal Management, owning company of Asia Energy, has yet to be notified of any decision by Asian Development Bank which was undertaking due diligence for possible investment in the project, said a press release on Tuesday. The lending agency's private sector operations department was expected to participate with a loan of $100 million and a political risk guarantee of $200 million for an open pit mine at Phulbari in Dinajpur proposed by Asia Energy, a subsidiary of the UK-based Global Coal Management.

Green Groups Oppose World Bank's India Coal Plant US: April 9, 2008 WASHINGTON - Environmental groups called on the World Bank to delay a decision on Tuesday on funding for a $4.2 billion coal-fired power plant in India until more analyses of costs and environmental impact are done. In a letter to the United States representative at the World Bank, Whitney Debevoise, six environmental groups said the bank could not effectively fight climate change while also funding high carbon-emitting projects, such as the 4,000 megawatt Tata Mundra coal project in Gujarat state.

ADB pulls out of Phulbari open pit mine project Tanim Ahmed The Asian Development Bank has decided to pull out of Asia Energy's proposed open pit coal mine project at Phulbari in Dinajpur. According to an email from Robert Bestani, director general of the ADB Private Sector Operations Department, the agency has decided to

Energy companies are planning to revive a polluting technology developed by the Nazis to replace dwindling supplies of oil with synthetic fuels derived from coal. Senior industry figures told a high-level conference in Paris this week that coal-to-liquids (CTL) technology could fuel cars and aircraft for decades to come. Green campaigners reacted with alarm because the process produces twice as much greenhouse gas as using oil. Supporters say much of the carbon pollution could be captured and stored underground, and that the synthetic fuel burns cleaner than conventional diesel.

RHETORIC is a sad fact of political life, and most voters are smart enough to know that grand promises made in the heat of a parliamentary debate or an election battle should be taken with a pinch of salt. But on energy policy the gap between claim and reality is now wide enough to be embarrassing.

The growth rate of six of the country's key infrastructure industries' accelerated to 8.7 per cent in February against 7.6 per cent in the same month a year ago, reviving hopes that industrial production would speed up and help arrest the current economic slowdown. However, the overall growth rate of these sectors for the 11 months from April to February 2007-08 remained lower at 5.6 per cent than 8.7 per cent for the corresponding period of fiscal 2006-07, due to below 5 per cent growth in the preceding four months.

Meghalaya Mining and Geology Minister Donkupar Massar has said that the mining policy would have to be strictly implemented to regulate unscientific mining in the state.

A transition period is essential for people to adopt the mooted mining ideas under the State's mining policy, feels Meghalaya Minister in-charge of Geology and Mining Donkupar Massar.