CCTV9英语新闻12月：辽宁首开“雾霾罚单” 8城市共被罚5420万（在线收听）

By CCTV reporter Guan Yang

Liaoning Province has fined eight cities 54-million yuan -- about nine million US dollars, for failing to curb air pollution. The revenue from the fines will be used to fund projects that can improve local air quality.

Our reporter, Guan Yang, travelled to one of the most polluted cities in Liaoning to find out why the tough measure were needed.

It’s not such a good idea to do morning exercise in Benxi, an industrial city in the country’s northeast that was founded as a center for metallurgy.

Reporter: “The recent tough penalties in Liaoning province come in response to rising concerns over severe air pollution. There’ve been widespread complaints and frustration from urban residents. In Benxi, one of the cities to be fined, the impact of air pollution on the quality of life is hard to ignore.”

For decades the city’s economy has been driven by steel production and coal mining. With smokestacks and chimneys dominating the city skyling .. it seems fresh air is one of the rarest commodity here.

“You can imagine the kind of poor air people who live next to these factories breath; if your apartment is on the upper floor the air quality might be better; but as days grow darker and colder more smoke is being spewed out of these smokestacks.” Ren Xiaomin, resident of Benxi in Liaoning province, said.

Decades of breakneck economic growth, a coal-dominated energy mix and lax environmental law enforcement have made Liaoning one of the most polluted provinces in the country. Something had to be done and penalizing the worst pollutors who have failed to clean up their act is a start.

“We don’t think the media should use the term "fines", rather it's an administrative tool used to supervise lower level governments; the regulation will push officials to keep an eye on the sky when they view their economic charts; and the money collected will be directly deducted from the city’s fiscal revenue at the end of the year.” Sun Pengxuan, manager of Liaoning Environmental Protection Bureau, said.

While Benxi was fined just 200,000 yuan for failing to force heavy pollutors to cut emmssions; that money may be returned to them. The region’s “Green Sky Project" aims to find ways to reduce emmissions from coal-burning winter heating systems and to help companies implement energy-saving and emission-reduction plans.

“Fighting air pollution is a long battle, Western countries have spent decades trying to improve their air quality, and are still trying; what we are doing here is to make that improvement happen as soon as possible.” Sun said.

And indeed it will be a long battle, and apart from providing technology and funds to clean up the air, it’s also imperative that local leader start considering the environment as much as they do economic development.