By Zhi Ming

With oil futures around US$50 a barrel in recent weeks, renewable energy looks like a good choice for many on environmental merits, but primarily on price.

In the first 10 months of this year, China imported a total of 99.59 million tons of crude oil.

According to the General Administration of Customs, the amount has already exceeded last year's total of 91.12 million tons. It is estimated that the country's oil imports this year could make up 40 percent of its total consumption.

To reduce oil consumption, the National Development and Reform Commission recently required a new type of gasoline, a combination of regular gasoline and the so-called denatured alcohol, be utilized in more regions. As an experiment, drivers in Northeast China's Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning provinces must use the new bioenergy, including ethanol made from corn.

The new fuel reduces pollutant emissions in vehicle exhaust. The emission of carbon monoxide, for example, could be cut by 30 percent. It can also help consume the stale grain in the national grain stocks, the storage of which is costly.

The shortcomings as a result of immature technology concern price, efficiency and potential corrosion. The price of the new fuel is slightly higher than regular petrol. There have been reports of consumers complaining about increased fuel consumption after the new energy was adopted. Experts admit the new fuel may etch certain components of some types of cars.

The merits of the bioenergy are obvious, which underpin the country's ambition to widely utilize the technology. Against the backdrop of rising oil prices and dwindling oil reserves worldwide, use of such environmentally and cost-friendly energy should be encouraged. It is of long-term and strategic importance for the country to find more efficient means of energy consumption to reduce oil-import dependence.

The faults of the new energy, however, should not be ignored.

Implementation of energy-saving policies should not be carried out at the expense of consumers.

In this sense, it may not be a good choice for the new energy policy to be hastily spread to more regions. The financial impact on consumers should be carefully examined and technology should be further improved before the policy is carried out in more provinces.

(China Daily November 18, 2004)