Beijing mulls new steps to keep more cars off roads

BEIJING -- City officials are considering new measures to keep the Chinese capital's air clean after two months of emergency steps for the Olympics raised public hopes for a permanent improvement.

The steps could include increasing parking fees to discourage driving; charging people to drive in congested downtown areas, as London and some other cities do; and auctioning license plates to reduce the number of cars added to the roads.

Officials have been meeting with environmental think tanks and industry advocates to discuss ways to satisfy stronger demands from the public for clean air, while limiting the economic consequences of any new restrictions, people familiar with the discussion say.

A series of drastic measures to cut pollution ended Saturday, following the completion of the Olympics in August and the Paralympics in September. Those measures, meant to be temporary, included the relocation or closure of hundreds of polluting factories near Beijing, the cessation of all construction in the city and restrictions on driving that cut the number of cars on the roads by nearly half.

Those steps reduced levels of most major pollutants in Beijing by about half, to levels more typically seen in major developed cities in the West. Beijing residents are worried the old levels of smog will return.

"After the Olympics, the public's expectations are higher," said Du Shaozhong, deputy head of the Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau. The success of the recent measures has created public willingness to accept restrictions to fight pollution, Mr. Du said, but he noted that economic growth needs to be weighed in forming policy.

Ringed by coal-burning factories and dusty deserts, and jammed with 3.3 million cars on gridlocked streets, Beijing is one of the world's most polluted major cities. The government has rolled out numerous measures to improve the environment, but growth has often outpaced regulation, and many rules were poorly enforced. For the Olympics, the government made clean air one of its priorities and cracked down on violators.

The government recently has encouraged an unusual amount of public debate over what price the city is willing to pay for cleaner air. It has published the results of opinion polls on automobile restrictions that show the public more or less split.

Curbing auto use could hurt one of China's pillar industries, car-industry advocates warn. The Beijing Auto Industry Association instead advocates higher fuel prices -- a move also favored by some environmentalists who want a long-discussed fuel tax enacted.

Mr. Du said the government plans to retire early about 10% of the city's older, more polluting cars because they don't meet current emissions standards. The 300,000 cars produced about half of Beijing's auto emissions, he said.