CLP to spend billions cutting pollution but won't reveal the cost to customers
Hong Kong's largest power producer - and biggest polluter - has unveiled plans to spend billions of dollars over the next seven years to reduce emissions from its power plants.
But CLP Group refused to disclose the exact cost, and it was not immediately clear whether the plan was conditional on the outcome of talks with the government over the company's future earnings and operating rules.
It was also not clear how much of the cost would be passed on to consumers, although the company said it would be 'very small'.
The plan includes the installation by 2011 of devices to remove sulfur from flue gases at its plants, and a catalytic converter to remove selected gases from emissions at its Castle Peak coal-fired plant.
But the plan received a lukewarm response from environmentalists, who said it was too conservative and the money would be better spent on a joint effort to clean up Guangdong's polluting power plants as well.