"A study published last year in Energy Policy found that producing, transporting and combusting this coal-generated gas results in up to 82 percent more carbon emissions than burning China's coal directly to generate electricity
If all the plants with initial government approval are built, they could boost the nation's annual carbon emissions by more than 7 percent over 2012 levels, according to an analysis prepared for The Seattle Times by a co-author of that study."
http://seattletimes.com/html/specialreportspages/2023517279_chinaenergyxml.html
