China has surpassed the United States to become the world’s largest consumer of energy according to the International Energy Agency (IEA), Reuters reported. "China is now the largest energy consumer by our definition," said Nobuo Tanaka, executive director of the IEA. China is not a member of the 28-member organization, but the IEA monitors China because its oil demand effects world supply. "Probably half of the oil demand increase comes from China. Nobody knows when it [will] slow down," Tanaka said. The organization said that China’s energy consumption was 0.4% higher than the US in 2009, at the equivalent of 2.252 billion tons oil. Chinese officials have said that previous estimates by the IEA were misleading or inaccurate.
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